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Springtime in the Garden. 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING 

HOW TO LAY OUT A GARDEN 



BY 

EDWARD KEMP 

LANDSCAPE GARDENER 



EDITED, REVISED AND ADAPTED TO 
NORTH AMERICA 

BY 

F. A. WAUGH 

Professor of Landscape Gardening, Massachusetts 
Agricultural College 



FOURTH EDITION 
FIRST THOUSAND 





NEW YORK 




JOHN 


WILEY & 


SONS 


LONDON : CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED 




1911 








Copyright, igr i 

BY 

F. A. WAUGH 



Stanbopc ipreaa 

F. H. GILSON COMPANY 
BOSTON. U.S.A. 



1 CI. A 2803 95 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Page 
Preface to the First Edition vii 

Preface to the American Edition xii 

Biographical Note xv 

CHAPTER I 

The Choice of a Place i 

CHAPTER II 
What to Avoid 28 

CHAPTER III 
General Principles 46 

CHAPTER IV 

The Several Styles 107 

CHAPTER V 
Practical Considerations 127 

CHAPTER VI 

Particular Objects . 175 

CHAPTER VII 

Special Features 194 

CHAPTER VIII 
Various Accessories 234 

CHAPTER IX 
Practical Directions 257 

v 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 



It is a salutary axiom, especially in this book-making age, 
that no volume should be sent before the public without 
something beyond a private reason for its appearance. It 
requires to be shown that other people have an interest to be 
served by it, and that the author's own pleasure or advantage 
is not alone consulted. 

But even this plea, however well made out, will not be a 
sufficient or satisfactory excuse for publication, unless the 
work be very erudite or far in advance of the times and 
calculated to benefit future generations. For an ordinary 
volume, on a common subject, the additional justification 
of being adapted and required for the use of large numbers 
of the people is demanded. 

How far, then, these requirements can be substantiated in 
reference to the present unassuming little essay the reader 
will easily be able to judge when its origin and purport are 
explained. 

Having spent a good deal of time in passing through the 
suburbs of large towns, the author, in common with many 
others whom he has had the opportunity of conversing with, 
has been very much impressed with the incongruity and dull- 
ness observable in the majority of small gardens, and been 
led strongly to wish that the general appearance of such 
districts were more gratifying to the passers-by, and the 
arrangement of individual gardens more productive of pleas- 
ure to the several occupants. There is such a humanizing 
and elevating influence about everything that is really beauti- 



viii Preface 

ful, whether in Art or in Nature, that it is almost impossible 
for the observant wayfarer to stumble upon such objects 
without being cheered and benefited, while their effect on 
those who have them daily beneath their eye is of a still 
deeper kind. 

From the author's every-day intercourse with gentlemen 
who are either laying out new grounds or are seeking to 
amend errors in design formerly committed, he is also enabled 
to perceive that sound and useful information is greatly 
wanted on the subject of landscape gardening, and that to 
this defect are mainly attributable the deformities so lament- 
ably frequent. He feels certain, moreover, that other land- 
scape gardeners will bear him out in the assertion, that their 
services are more employed to remedy irregularities which 
have been fallen into for want of due consideration and en- 
lightenment, than to furnish entirely new designs. And the 
difficulty and expense of rectifying such errors can scarcely 
be overestimated. It is wisely ordained that while a truly 
beautiful object will yield permanent and increasing delight, 
everything of a contrary nature is nearly sure, at some 
period or other, to pall and disgust the mind. 

As far as the writer's own observation has extended, — and 
he has reason to believe that is a fair criterion of the real 
facts of the case, — there is no want of appreciation, among 
the classes for whom this work is intended, of what is tasteful 
and elegant in gardening. Most persons are able to admire 
a chaste and beautiful garden when they see it. What is 
rather required is something or some one to develop and guide 
their tastes and direct them to fitting objects. 

On all these accounts, then, and as a humble but earnest 
effort to supply these demands, the book now submitted has 
been written. It is clearly required by the multitude, for how 
few there are among the middle classes who do not possess a 



Preface ix 

small garden! And the very extreme of smallness will not 
exclude a place from the beneficent influence of art, which is, 
perhaps, all the more necessary and powerful in proportion as 
the limits become more contracted. Still, a garden varying 
in extent from a quarter of an acre to four or five acres, and 
either wholly without an accompanying field, or having one 
that comprises from one to twenty-five acres, is what has 
been chiefly kept in view. 

Nor will places of greater size and more pretension than 
have been actually contemplated in the outline of the work 
be altogether beyond its range. Unambitious as it is in its 
title and leading object, it may not be without interest or use 
to the proprietor of a large domain. In its radical principles 
art is essentially the same, whether it apply to a great or a 
little object; and, relieved of whatever is peculiar in its refer- 
ence to small places (this being distinctly pointed out, where 
it is requisite to do so) the points of which the book promi- 
nently treats are such as embrace both extensive and limited 
estates indiscriminately. The author's hope is, consequently, 
while writing for a large and particular section of the com- 
munity, not entirely to shut out a smaller but higher or more 
wealthy class. 

The work of the late indefatigable Mr. Loudon, on Subur- 
ban Gardening, being somewhat of the nature of the present 
more restricted production, may be mentioned with the 
greatest respect, as a voluminous and ample treatise on every- 
thing relating to the subject. The book now submitted 
covers but a fragment of the same field, without, it is believed, 
at all trenching on the province of its predecessor, it having 
been the aim to avoid, as far as possible, traveling over 
beaten and frequented ground. The price and portableness 
of this volume will further place it at an immense distance 
from whatever has preceded it. 



x Preface 

Such being, in brief, the nature, object, and occasion of the 
essay winch follows, a few words only remain to be said on its 
materials and execution. There is nothing of egotism (cer- 
tainly nothing intentional) in the remark that these pages 
have sprung out of the author's own reflection and observa- 
tion, and have often been jotted down of an evening, or dur- 
ing a journey, as the result of daily experience. It is very 
likely that a more finished and comprehensive and readable 
book might have been produced by the use of frequent quota- 
tion and copious illustration from other and less easily attain- 
able works. This, however, was no part of the original plan; 
though it should be added, that since its completion the best 
books on the art have been glanced over, and a few valu- 
able hints, which have been mostly acknowledged, gleaned 
from Sir Uvedale Price, Mr. Repton, and Mr. Loudon. The 
work of Sir U. Price on "The Picturesque " is probably the 
most valuable thing of the kind in our language. To have 
collected more from these, or Mr. Gilpin, or any other 
authority, would have entirely altered the limits and inten- 
tion of the essay. 

At the outset of his task, it was the author's purpose to 
have illustrated the volume with a number of woodcuts, show- 
ing how the various suggestions might be actually carried out, 
and supplying designs for a few gardens of different sizes in 
the two principal styles. Well-selected lists of the several 
tribes of plants suitable for gardens of limited dimensions 
were likewise to have been inserted. But it was soon found 
that the first of these would have materially increased the 
price without adding greatly to the efficiency of the book, 
while the catalogues in question would also have seriously 
enlarged its bulk. Mere lists of plants, too, are of such com- 
mon occurrence in other publications, that they do not seem 
to be wanted; and general designs for places, or sketches of 



Preface xi 

particular objects, are seldom capable of being applied, with- 
out much modification, to individual gardens. 

With regard to the style and manner of the work, the 
author confesses some little fear lest it should be deemed too 
elaborate or dogmatical. The first of these faults, if it have 
any palpable existence, has originated in the wish to render 
the matter as expressive, as dense, and as serviceable as 
possible. It is mainly due to the aim at obtaining brevity 
and force, without omitting anything. And on so compre- 
hensive a theme it is hardly surprising that the matter should 
have accumulated to an extent by no means originally con-. 
templated, so that the object indicated by the title may even 
seem to be unduly departed from. This will, however, be 
more than justified by the fact that there are yet a great 
many things, not without interest or importance, unavoidably 
omitted. 

For the second defect, which appears more manifest and 
serious, a similar excuse may in part be alleged, with the 
additional plea that practical information can hardly be made 
altogether suggestive, and must, to some extent, become dog- 
matical, unless it be conveyed in a very circuitous form. At 
any rate, it is hoped that this will be considered simply as a 
fault of manner, and not as indicating a positive or presump- 
tuous disposition, which is utterly foreign to the author's 
purpose. 

With these frank admissions he now submits his little 
volume to the test of public opinion, assured that, whatever 
may be its fate, it will be judged by the substance of what 
it contains, and not by the mere accidents of manner and 
composition. 

EDWARD KEMP. 

Birkenhead Park, Liverpool. 



PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION 



When it was first proposed that I undertake the American 
revision of this work I accepted the opportunity with high 
anticipations. Kemp's Landscape Gardening was one of the 
first books on the subject I had ever read, and one of the 
most delightful. I had used it for years as a reference book 
in my classes. I expected that the work of revision would be 
easy and entertaining. 

So far as the simplicity of the task was concerned I was 
soon better informed. Though I have not ceased to enjoy 
the work, I have found it a much greater task than I had 
supposed. On hundreds of pages it has been almost impos- 
sible to separate the gist of good advice from the detail of 
old English practice in which it was imbedded. Oftener than 
I had expected I found myself in disagreement with the 
recommendations of the author. In such cases it became 
very difficult to decide whether the author's methods had 
been outgrown in the general improvement of landscape 
gardening since his day, whether his methods were simply 
unfashionable at this moment in America, or whether it was 
merely a difference of opinion between author and reviser. 
In cases of the first kind I have not hesitated to eliminate 
outgrown methods and to substitute the rules of more modern 
practice. In those of the second kind, where merely a chang- 
ing fashion is involved, I have usually retained the author's 
views, adding some note of present American ideas. In cases 
of the third kind, where there appeared to be only a difference 
of opinion, it is hardly necessary to say that I have allowed 



Preface xiii 

the author's text to stand intact, reserving the expression of 
my own views for some more appropriate opportunity. 

The reader will readily understand, therefore, that where 
the personal pronoun, first person, occurs in the text it always 
means Edward Kemp. 

The work of Kemp will be better understood and more 
enjoyed if it is studied in connection with the work of his 
contemporaries, particularly Repton, Milner, Loudon and 
Downing; for America, the comparison with Downing is 
most natural and most instructive. There is, of course, no 
space in this book for a critical comparison of these various 
workers, but a slight introduction to such a study will be 
found in the biographical note on Kemp included herewith. 
There is every reason to believe that, with the remarkable 
popularization and no less remarkable liberalization of land- 
scape art now going on in America, there will be more interest 
than ever before in the work of those great men who estab- 
lished the English (and therefore the American) style of land- 
scape gardening. 

F. A. WAUGH. 

Massachusetts Agricultural College, 
January, 191 1. 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 



Edward Kemp was born at Streatham, Surrey, England, 
September 25, 181 7, and died at Birkenhead, Liverpool, 
England, March 2, 1891, in his seventy-fourth year. Even 
at this early date, less than twenty years since his death, 
there are very few details of his life and work to be learned. 

His technical training was gained in the gardens of the 
Royal Horticultural Society at Chiswick, under Dr. Lindley, 
and subsequently in private work under Sir Joseph Paxton. 
In September, 1843, at the age of twenty- five, he was made 
superintendent of Birkenhead Park, Liverpool, and the 
remainder of his life was closely connected with that particu- 
lar enterprise. He designed a number of private places, 
several of which are illustrated and described in the various 
editions of his books. 

His debut as a writer came in 1850, when he put out a 
small volume under the title "How to Lay out a Small 
Garden," which was really the germ of the present book. 
A second edition, illustrated and much enlarged, was issued 
in 1858. A third and yet larger edition appeared in 1864. 
The chronological list of his principal writings is as follows: 

1850. "How to Lay out a Small Garden"; intended as a 
guide to amateurs in choosing, forming or improving a place, 
with reference to both design and execution. London, Brad- 
bury & Evans. 212 pp., 8vo. 

1850. Editor, "The Handbook of Gardening," tenth 
edition. 



xvi Biographical Note 

1851. "Parks, Gardens, etc., of London and its Suburbs." 
London. i2mo. 

1858. "How to Lay out a Small Garden," 2d ed., en- 
larged and illustrated. London. i2ino., about 400 pp. 

1858. Same. First American edition, Wiley & Halstead. 
New York. 403 pp., nmo. 

1864. Same. Third Edition (English) again revised and 
enlarged. London, Bradbury & Evans. 428 pp., 8vo. 

.1880. Same, Second American Edition, John Wiley & 
Sons, New York. 403 pp. nmo. 

At his death Mr. Kemp was buried in Flaybrick Hill Ceme- 
tery, Birkenhead, of which he had been the designer. At a 
meeting of the Burial Board for the Parish of Liverpool held 
at their offices, Anfield Park Cemetery, on Thursday the 2d 
of April, 1 89 1, it was unanimously 

"Resolved, That the Board has heard with much regret 
of the recent death of Edward Kemp, Esq., the eminent 
Landscape Gardener and Garden Architect to whose genius 
Liverpool and its Burial Board are indebted for the Anfield 
Park Cemetery. Mr. Kemp furnished the Design, also zeal- 
ously and faithfully attended to the laying out and embel- 
lishment of the Grounds. 

" Through his strict integrity and dignified conduct the 
Burial Board soon after its origin escaped many evils, and, 
prompted by his solicitude for the future good manage- 
ment and reputation of the Cemetery (at the request of the 
Board and in its interest) he induced his Draughtsman, 
Assistant and Friend, Mr. Wm. Wortley to undertake the 
Superintendence of the Estate, which he has so ably man- 
aged for the period of twenty-eight years. 

" Further, that this Resolution be recorded upon the 
Minutes as a tribute of high respect to the memory of the 
departed, and that this expression of the Board's sincere 



Biographical Note xvii 

regret and condolence be conveyed to the Relatives of the 
Late Mr. Kemp." 

Extracted from the Proceedings, 

ELEAZOR ROBERTS, 

Clerk to the Burial Board. 

A memorial card circulated at the time of his death had, 
according to the then prevailing fashion, a tribute in verse, 
which read: 

" He made the Landscape meet the eye 
With Beauty: and turned the barren wastes 
To noble Parks and Gardens of the Lord. 
Thus Nature's rugged face 
By Art he wreathed with winsome smiles 
That woo'd the Children of the City, and the Sons 
Of grimy toil and gave delight to all." 

J. C. P. 

Although I have employed two expert English antiquarians 
for the search, and though I have myself visited the scene of 
his principal labors for the same purpose, it has not been 
possible to add any important facts to this meager biography 
of an able and useful man. His most enduring memorial will 
certainly be his book on "Landscape Gardening; or How to 
Lay out a Garden." 

F. A. WAUGH. 



LIST OF PLATES 



Springtime in the Garden Frontispiece 

Plate Op. Page 

I. Stone Steps with Plantings 10 

II. Shores of the Charles River 26 

III. On the Biltmore Estate, North Carolina 42 

IV. Lawn Vista from House Veranda 58 

V. Lawn Vista and Groupings 74 

VI. Old-fashioned Garden 90 

VII. Rustic Bridge in Rock Creek Park 106 

VIII. Wistarias and Subtropical Plants 122 

IX. Entrance and Drive, Biltmore Estate ♦. 138 

X. Plantings along a Driveway 154 

XI. A Pleasant Winter Walk 170 

XII. Excellent Water Surface with Background and 

Sky Line 186 

XIII. Vista across a Pond 202 

XIV. Effective Grouping of Trees 218 

XV. Wide Road with Border and Screen 234 

XVI. Entrance to a Ten-acre Private Place 250 

XVII. Effective Water Surface and Grouping 258 

XVIII. Pleasant Naturalistic Lawn on a Georgia Estate . . . 266 
XIX. Good Water Surface, Good Borders, Good Back- 
ground, Good Sky Line 274 

XX. In the Wild Garden 282 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Figure Page 

i. Improper Grade for a Lawn 16 

2. Convex-Concave Grade for a Lawn 16 

3. Plan of a House with Reference to the Grounds 19 

4. Arrangement of an American House 22 

5. Outline Plan of a Place 24 

6. Tree Belt — Monotonous 36 

7. Same as Fig. 6 — Improved 36 

8. Monotonous Belt on Rolling Land 37 

9. Improvement of Fig. 8 37 

10. Method of Grading for Walks 57 

11. Practical Perspective 60 

12. Vista Showing Distant Views 62 

13. Treatment of Flat Foreground 64 

14. Treatment of Foreground with Water View 66 

15. Treatment of Curved Walk 70 

16. Grouping Shrubs along a Walk 71 

17. Typical Group 71 

18. Elevation of Group 73 

19. Group on High Land 74 

20. Plan of Proper Grouping 75 

21. Method of Diversifying Views from Residence 76 

22. Vistas with Cross- Views 79 

23. Treatment of Boundary 81 

24. Location of Group on a Knoll 82 

25. Treatment of Grades 83 

26. Branching of Straight Walk no 

27. Various Treatments of Formal Walks 113 

28. Various Forms of Flower Beds 116 

29. Other Forms of Flower Beds 118 

30. Terrace Treatment of Rising Ground 121 

31. Grades about a House 122 

32. A Type of the Picturesque 125 

33. Oblique Turn-in from Public Road 133 

34. Turn-in at Right Angles 134 

35. Carriage Turn for Small Grounds 138 

36. Carriage Turn with Embellishment 139 

37. Branching of a Walk 141 

38. Grading to a Walk I42 

39. Grading to a Walk 143 

40. Sunken Wall or Fence ^ 

xxi 



xxii Illustrations 



Figure p AGK 

41. Sloping Invisible Iron Fence 144 

42. Common Wire Fence Sunken 145 

43. Boundary Wall with Planting 146 

44. Rustic Fence ^8 

45. Simple Protector for Tree 148 

46. Tree Protected by Undergrowth 149 

47. Proper Form for Border Planting 151 

48. Two Groups which look like One 153 

49. A Mixed Group 154. 

50. A Good Picturesque Grouping 154 

51. How to Plant a Hill 155 

52. Terrace Disguised by Plantings 169 

53. Plan of an Architectural Garden 171 

54. How to Manage a Hedge 189 

55. Plan of a Home Park 201 

56. Design of Residence Grounds 205 

57. A Secluded Flower Garden 207 

58. Design for a Rose Garden 215 

59. The Arrangement of a Collection 218 

60. Design for a Bowling Green 221 

61. Plan of an Artificial Pond 227 

62. Forming the Bank of a Lake 229 

63. Lake Shore Planting 230 

64. Rustic Bridge on Simple Lines 231 

65. Design of a Summer House 236 

66. Gate Lodge and Entrance 247 

67. Simple Lodge and Entrance 249 

68. Imposing Recessed Entrance 250 

69. An Unusual Type of Entrance ,• • • ■ 2 5 I 

70. Plan of a Seaside Garden 254 

71. Section through Garden Shown in Fig. 70 255 

72. Cross Section of Drain 260 

73. Cross Section of Drain 260 

74. Excavation for Walk 262 

75. Different Forms of Walks 267 

76 and 77. Setting a Tree to Stay 281 

78. Staking a Tree 282 

79. Staking a Large Tree 282 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



CHAPTER I 

The Choice of a Place 

From that beautiful variety of taste which brings the com- 
monest persons into association with the more cultivated, and 
secures for objects that many would regard as inferior a cer- 
tain amount of approbation and patronage, scarcely any two 
individuals will be disposed to select, where there is a full 
latitude of choice and a thorough knowledge of every peculi- 
arity, precisely the same spot for a residence. What would 
perfectly satisfy one might be displeasing to another. The 
conditions that some would even detest others might actually 
covet. And this it is, united to the fact that few can obtain 
exactly all they desire, and that the alternative must gener- 
ally lie between situations which comprise a greater or less 
proportion of the required capabilities, that distributes the 
population of our towns pretty equally over the suburbs, and 
brings districts into use that would otherwise remain entirely 
waste or be devoted only to the farmer or the grazier. 

Railways, however, with their annual contracts for con- 
veyance, and the rapidity, ease, and certainty of transit, are 
now gradually bringing other parts of the country within the 
range of selection, and enabling the town merchant or man of 
business to locate himself from ten to twenty, or even forty 
or fifty miles from the town, and thus get the benefit of coun- 
try air and rural pleasures. And from the greater abundance 



Landscape Gardening 



and cheapness of land in such districts a wider field of choice 
is afforded, and more scope for the exercise of judgment and 
taste. 

Although, therefore, every person will necessarily have his 
own peculiar inclinations, and the opportunities of gratifying 
a refined feeling may be very limited, it is right that a book 
like the present, which professes merely to be suggestive, 
should point out those characteristics most generally desirable 
in a place, and which might not be thought of, or would pos- 
sibly be but lightly regarded, if not thus specifically presented, 
leaving every one to the exercise of his individual wishes. 

i. Accessibility. — The question which first arises in the 
mind of an inquirer after a site for a residence is determined 
is, how it will be accessible. There may be different opinions 
as to the kind of road preferable for getting at a dwelling- 
place, but an actual necessity exists that there should be 
some convenient mode of access. Many would desire to fix 
themselves near a well-frequented road, while some would 
rather be situated on the side of a more retired and private 
thoroughfare. It will be obvious however, that the road by 
which a place is approached should be a sound one, likely 
to be kept in good repair and capable of being used at all 
times. A bad road that has to be frequently traveled, is not 
merely an inconvenience and a nuisance, but gives a most 
unfavorable impression of a place to visitors; and a private 
road, that is closed at night, may occasion a good deal of 
trouble and discomfort. 

To settle in a place to which there is no good road already 
formed, or where one cannot be built, will seldom be other- 
wise than productive of misery. A mere expectation that a 
road will be made should never be held sufficient, for a house 
may stand in a state of isolation several years, cut off, as it 
were, from all proper connection with the world, if the road 



The Choice of a Place 



to it or past it be not already in existence or certain to be 
opened. 

It will be well to calculate, further, the length of road or 
drive which will have to be made and kept in order by the 
owner or occupant of a place. Road-making is an expensive 
process in most districts, and the due preservation of roads is 
always troublesome. While, therefore, the having to provide 
a considerable length of private drive in order to get at a 
place will be an advantage in the way of conferring more 
privacy and retirement, it must be looked upon as a source 
of increased outlay and additional subsequent labor. 

Where there is any possibility of obtaining such a piece of 
land, it is most important that it should have a public road 
along one of its sides only, and that this road should be on the 
north, north-east, or north-west boundary. Access will thus 
be given to the house at the point which is of least conse- 
quence in regard to views, and the warmer and better sides 
can be kept open and private. Entrance from any other 
point would always more or less interfere with the lawn 
and the more ornamental parts of the garden, besides laying 
bare some of the best windows of the house or involving the 
necessity of giving these an inferior aspect. This is assum- 
ing, however, that the site be chosen with reference to a 
proper aspect and views for the house. 

Comparative nearness to a railway station will, even where 
a vehicle is kept, be a decided acquisition; for there are cer- 
tain to be times when either the owner or his friends will 
want to make use of these conveniences. In wet weather, 
especially, it will be unpleasant to have to walk far before 
reaching some kind of conveyance. 

Proximity to some seat of business, where at least the neces- 
saries of life can be readily procured, will also be an advantage. 
To have to send a great distance for articles of food when 



Landscape Gardening 



there may be an unexpected demand for them, will generally 
be a heavy tax upon patience and time. The situation ought 
likewise to be within reach, by an easy and pleasant walk, 
of some suitable place of worship. 

It should be recollected that roads on which there is much 
traffic bring a large amount of dust at certain seasons, while 
they render a house and garden more exposed to observation 
from the foot-passengers or the travelers on public vehicles. 
A place on a small and less frequented road, at a little dis- 
tance from a great highway, will therefore be more comfort- 
able and more secluded than one which lies by the side of a 
turnpike road. And this view of the case will further serve 
to show the undesirableness of having a property entirely 
surrounded by roads. Arable lands, fields, open country, or 
other gardens and private estates, will be the best possible 
accompaniments on all the southerly sides of a place. 

Anything in the way of a public path crossing a property, 
and severing it into two parts, or a public road passing across 
a plot in the same manner, would seriously prejudice its 
value. When such things are carried through an estate with- 
out being fenced off, they lay bare certain portions of it to 
the public eye, and, what is worse, subject it to continual 
trespass. And to fence off a path or road of this description 
would greatly mutilate a place, and give it a small and con- 
fined appearance. Nor is it at all easy to get established 
pathways diverted, unless a more direct route can be pre- 
pared for them. The nuisance of having a place thus open 
to the use of all, in populous districts, can hardly be exag- 
gerated. 

In this, as in a variety of similar cases, however, circum- 
stances that would- be inconvenient and objectionable to most 
persons might be altogether unproductive of annoyance to 
others; for no rule of life is more true or of more universal 



The Choice of a Place 



application than that things are not so much discomforting 
or pleasurable in themselves, but are just what they are con- 
sidered to be. So that what would be intolerable to many 
might become perfectly inoffensive to those who were deter- 
mined to regard it favorably. 

2. Neighborhood Environment. — Besides the advantage 
of having the property on the best boundaries of a place 
congenially treated, and appropriated to agricultural or gar- 
den purposes, or left to the rudeness and picturesqueness of 
nature, it is of consequence that the whole of the surrounding 
property be of a similar character, and that it be not covered 
with cottage tenements, or crowded with any kind of inferior 
houses, or the atmosphere darkened by the smoke and pol- 
luted by the gases from large manufactories. To live amidst 
fields and gardens and cultivated or unassisted nature, or 
to have only the vicinity of kindred or superior places, is a 
luxury well worth the sacrifice of some trifling conveniences 
and the traveling a mile or two further from a town. There 
is so much calculated to offend and to annoy in a closely 
peopled neighborhood, especially if it be crowded with small 
cottages, that the majority of persons will gladly shun it. 

Not only, however, will it be well to look closely into the 
character of the surrounding district, and ascertain how it is 
actually built upon or appropriated, and by what class of 
persons it is populated, but the probable uses of the neigh- 
borhood should likewise be considered. A particular local- 
ity may at the time of choosing it appear highly rural, and 
have every desirable characteristic, whereas in a few years 
it may become densely covered with small houses or obnox- 
ious manufactories, be cut up into narrow roads, and other- 
wise be completely spoiled as a place for residence. For all 
these things, then, due calculation must be made; and though 
no human foresight can reach anything like certainty in such 



Landscape Gardening 



a matter, especially considering the rapid transitions which 
property is now frequently undergoing, diligent investigation 
will commonly prove a tolerably safe guide. 

Those localities unquestionably offer the greatest security 
in regard to the preservation of a respectable and partially 
rural character wherein large tracts are in the hands of one 
or two proprietors who bind lessees or purchasers to build 
only a certain number and class of houses on the land and 
themselves agree to lay it out strictly according to a definite 
plan. Here there is something approaching to absolute cer- 
tainty, and a person may settle on a given spot with the full 
knowledge of what alone can be done by all his neighbors, 
and the actual pecuniary and social status of those neighbors. 

Where several plots of land overlook fine natural scenery, 
as on the shores of large rivers, lakes, or the sea, that which 
is nearest the object itself will generally be the most eligible, 
if other things are about equal. For the view over a natural 
landscape that is incapable of alteration, and with no inter- 
vening space that can ever be used by another party, becomes 
perfectly safe from interruption at any future period, and 
may be treated much more liberally and with reference solely 
to individual wants and tastes. Every position farther from 
the scenery most worth preserving, however unencumbered 
the view from it may be, will be liable to have that view 
more or less intercepted by the uses to which the interposing 
property may be put, unless the elevation be very consider- 
able and the slope of the ground rapid and almost precipitous. 

If, again, land on both sides of a public road commands 
the same beautiful scenery, that which is on the side nearest 
the scenery itself will be greatly superior as the site for a 
house and garden; because, on the opposite plot, a partial 
plantation will have to be made to screen the place from the 
road, and this will, to some extent, block out the view, while 



The Choice of a Place 7 



the owner will be thoroughly dependent, in respect to land- 
scape, on what may be done by his opposite neighbor in the 
way of both planting and building. It will be most unlikely 
— almost impossible — that some of this latter should 
not entirely obstruct every open sight into the country 
beyond. 

3. Historical Considerations. — What has formerly been 
done upon a place may be by no means an insignificant, and 
will certainly be an interesting, question. The part which it 
plays in local histories or legends, and the associations which 
previous ownership or occupation or uses may fasten upon 
it, are all worthy of scrutiny, and may help either to endear 
and enliven a spot or to clothe it with gloomy and repulsive 
features. 

To be able to trace back the possession of a property by 
one or more families through a long series of years will be 
almost as pleasing to some minds as having a lengthened and 
well-ascertained personal pedigree; and though many would 
not care to know who have been the former owners and for 
how long a period the history can be made out, to others 
such a record will be full of attraction. The very trees and 
shrubs, if any old ones exist, will be all the more pregnant 
with interest when it is authentically made out by whom and 
when they were planted. 

In reviving ancient recollections and usages, or searching 
after mementos of former times, a variety of hints may be 
gleaned as to the treatment of a place, or objects brought 
to bear upon the composition of its landscape, which will be 
exceedingly remunerative. A valuable spring or well may be 
laid bare; a charming ruin may be contrived from existing 
fragments; the first step in a train of interesting antiquarian 
researches may be stumbled on; family histories, which are 
often the key to greater memorials, may be brought to light; 



Landscape Gardening 



and, what is not entirely unimportant, an excellent and char- 
acteristic name for the property may be suggested: for, in 
the prevailing fashion for distinguishing every place, however 
small, with a separate title, those are usually happiest who 
have some historical or local circumstance on which to found 
it. The old and common names of fields are often highly 
characteristic, and, when sufficiently descriptive or eupho- 
nious, there is great propriety in adopting the ancient title 
of any part of a property intended for a residence, but more 
particularly of the field on which the house is to be built or 
the garden founded. 

4. Altitude. — The relative elevation of the district, or of 
the particular site selected in it, will have a great influence 
on the healthiness, comfort, and scenery of a place. A tract 
that is low and flat is always damper, and consequently 
colder. I have often noticed dips in a road along which I 
have been accustomed to travel in winter evenings, where, 
by the much greater coldness of the atmosphere in such lower 
parts (even though no water existed), I could distinguish the 
arrival at them with closed eyes; and where rivers or streams 
or other pieces of water exist in hollows, their dampness and 
coldness are of course increased. Fogs are always more prev- 
alent in valleys or low level tracts, and it is a well-ascer- 
tained fact that spring frosts are felt much later, and autumn 
frosts earlier, in lowland districts and near the course of 
streams than on the sides or summits of hills. 

A rather elevated or hilly tract, though more exposed to 
winds than a flatter locality, will, if it have a good aspect 
and slope in the right direction, be drier and warmer in winter 
and command much finer views of the country. It will be 
more likely to be free from all kinds of nuisances, to be out 
of the way of cottage property, and to escape from the gaze 
of travelers along contiguous roads. Where a house and 



The Choice of a Place 



garden are lower than the outside road, it is extremely diffi- 
cult to shut them in effectually. From a gentle eminence, 
too, it will be easy to conceal all the bad features of the 
adjoining property and to make use of all the better objects 
in enhancing the beauty and variety of a scene. 

Any extravagant height, however, above the rest of the 
country will produce an amount of exposure, both for the 
house and the garden, which will destroy some of the enjoy- 
ment derivable from a habitation and prevent the plants in 
a garden from flourishing luxuriantly. It would, moreover, 
occasion some inconvenience in regard to the approach. To 
have constantly to toil up a steep ascent before a place can be 
reached will neither be agreeable to man nor horse, and will 
contribute somewhat to lengthen the journey. A very mod- 
erate elevation is therefore best, and will be specially appro- 
priate where any member of the family has delicate health 
and cannot endure much in the way of bracing winds. 

5. Soil. — Of almost greater moment than the altitude of 
a district is the character of the soil, and this, rather as it 
affects the health and the comfort than with reference to its 
influence on garden produce and operations, although the 
latter is far from being a matter of indifference. Scarcely 
anything will grow well on thoroughly stiff land, and it is 
very unpleasant and laborious to work it,, besides requiring 
more attention as to the choice of weather for going upon it 
than can usually be afforded. 

Nothing is more unsatisfactory than to have a house and 
garden on a clay soil. No amount of draining will convert 
it into an agreeable and open state. And whatever ingre- 
dients may be added, or amelioration by working it may be 
attempted, it will still remain more or less cold and sticky, 
and in some degree unfit for developing vegetable life per- 
fectly. It will be bad to keep clean, and to dig, and to crop, 



10 Landscape Gardening 

and to walk upon. It will be cold and greasy in wet weather, 
and cake together and crack during drought. Few vegetable 
crops will succeed in it, and a still smaller number of flowers. 
Even grass grown upon it will generally be either very wet or 
very dry; and the atmosphere above it will be correspond- 
ency cold and moist throughout the winter. Unless the 
utmost care be used to prevent any part of a building from 
coming into contact with it, a considerable dampness will 
be communicated from it to the walls, and a house will thus 
be made exceedingly miserable. 

Land of a light and open texture is, on the contrary, con- 
ducive to both health and enjoyment and renders a house 
comfortable and a garden delightful at all times. It never 
becomes too wet; it is readily worked in almost any weather; 
it makes a lawn pleasant to walk upon and encourages the 
growth of the finer grasses; it is the best of soil for flowers, 
and, with due enrichment, for vegetables and fruit trees; and, 
in short, for any purpose it will be found either perfectly 
suitable or capable of quickly being made so. 

Nor is the surface soil alone of consequence, for the sub- 
stratum will continually more or less affect the upper crust. 
A cold and clayey foundation soil, or a close retentive layer 
of gravel, will act upon the roots of all the larger growing 
plants, and tend to produce feebleness and disease after they 
have once reached it. A rocky, chalky, or sandy bottom 
will be much the driest, and altogether the most calculated 
to promote human enjoyment and vegetable health. 

It follows, therefore, that a light and porous (though not a 
very sandy or friable or shallow) soil, on a dry and open, 
or rocky foundation, will be the best to build upon,, so as 
to secure dryness and warmth in a house, and the fittest 
to make a garden pleasurable and to supply the conditions 
most needed by the bulk of vegetables, flowers, and fruits. 



The Choice of a Place n 

And it will, in point of economy, do away with some, at least, 
of the necessity for artificial drainage. 

Lest this conclusion, however, should be unduly appropri- 
ated, it may be well to state that it applies only to garden 
ground and to the site of a residence; and that, even for the 
former, any extreme of lightness or sandiness will be apt to 
occasion withered grass in the summer and the necessity for 
increased manuring in the kitchen garden. For all farming 
purposes a moderately heavy land is decidedly preferable, 
as, if properly drained and carefully worked, it will yield far 
more abundant crops at a much lighter expense in the way 
of manure. 

6. Boundaries. — With respect to the shape or outline of 
a small place, that form is most suitable which is simple, free 
from all acutely angular corners and any great irregularities. 
A place that has many angles or a very broken outline is 
less capable of being made either useful or ornamental, and 
requires a larger amount of fencing, which is always expen- 
sive. Very narrow pieces of land are also to be avoided, as 
affording no scope for variety of treatment and presenting 
the hard boundary lines too prominently. 

That boundary is unquestionably the best which is com- 
posed of pretty regular lines and brings the whole into a 
somewhat oblong figure, of which the greatest length is north 
and south, or nearly so, the length being about one-third 
greater than the breadth. Such a shape is particularly 
adapted for the geometrical style of gardening. In the freer 
English manner a little more irregularity of outline might 
be preferable. If the southerly end of such a plot be the 
broadest, this will be a decided merit generally, as it will 
afford a wider range of view and make the whole appear 
larger from the best windows of the house. 

A nearly triangular figure, the narrow end of which is cut 



12 Landscape Gardening 

off and not drawn to a point, and the broader end having a 
rather southerly aspect, will be a desirable shape for a small 
piece of land. If there be space enough for the entrances on 
the northern side, the increased and expanding breadth at the 
southern part will be of great consequence from an ornamen- 
tal point of view. At the same time nothing could be more 
unfortunate than to have a plot gradually narrowing away 
on the best side of the house; and a shape at all approaching 
to a triangle, with the narrow part fronting the principal win- 
dows of the house, would be one of the worst that could be 
selected, unless the slope of the land be a very rapid one 
towards the south, and the property immediately in front 
be of a decidedly open and park-like character. 

On the whole, then, the spot that requires the least quan- 
tity of fencing, which gives sufficient room for access on the 
entrance front, and which widens out towards the extreme 
verge on the best side of the house, will, by admitting a 
greater breadth and variety of prospect, and more light and 
air, as well as by imparting an appearance of extent and 
rendering the fences cheaper and easier to preserve, be in all 
respects preferable. 

7. Climate. — Where a person is in some measure tied to a 
particular district by business or other connections, of course 
there cannot be much latitude of choice in regard to climate. 
But those who have habituated themselves to observe dif- 
ferences of this kind will know that within the circuit of a 
few miles around any town there will be found the most 
striking variations of climate, according as certain winds pre- 
vail or particular degrees of elevation or forest growth exist. 

In the neighborhood of towns a knowledge of the prevail- 
ing winds is of very great moment, for at the opposite point 
from which they come there will generally be a greater visi- 
tation of smoke and other nuisances. But if the parts over 



The Choice of a Place i 3 

which smoke would thus frequently travel are elevated, the 
atmosphere will not be so much polluted as it would were they 
low and flat. Hilly tracts, again, as previously mentioned, 
are not so liable to be affected with dense and disagreeable 
fogs. 

Regarding the most desirable aspect for a place, more posi- 
tive rules can be given. A slope that inclines to the south- 
east is unquestionably the best for every purpose. It is 
more healthy, more cheerful, better suited for the growth of 
plants, drier, and warmer, than any other that can be chosen. 

A garden that has not a good aspect is seldom enjoyable. 
It will usually be damp and cold, the walks mossy, and the 
plants unhealthy. It will be wanting in the great charm pro- 
duced by light and shade. Flowers will not develop them- 
selves freely and finely nor will fruits be abundant or good. 
In fact, with a bad aspect, the beauty of a garden and the 
pleasure it produces will be greatly marred. 

It is true that, in looking over an extensive landscape, the 
effects are sometimes heightened and improved, and the 
observer is able to examine them better, when the sun is 
behind him, and he can stand in the shade to scrutinize a 
richly illumined scene. Every feature thus becomes more 
distinct, the eye is not pained or dazzled, and the atmosphere 
appears clearer. But the benefit obtained by these results 
would never atone for the great disadvantages of a northerly 
aspect; and they can, moreover, often be realized from the 
entrance front of a place, without any sacrifice of outlook. 

8. Shelter. — To render a place of residence thoroughly 
delightful it should not be destitute of shelter; and, where 
this exists naturally, or is already provided, the spot will be 
all the more eligible as the site for a house and garden. 

If a good range of hills extend along the north, north-east, 
and north-west sides of a plot and at no great distance from 



14 Landscape Gardening 

it, it will be admirably sheltered. No position could be 
warmer or more favorable than one on the slope or at a 
short distance from the base of such a range of hills. They 
will ward off all the worst and most unhealthy winds to 
which this country is exposed, without at all interfering with 
the action of the sun at any time of the day, or during any 
part of the year. 

In hilly countries, there is often a considerable depression 
or hollow in the face of the hills, caused by the projection of 
large arms or buttresses on either side; and the basin thus 
formed, if it front any point near the south, will yield a par- 
ticularly warm and snug retreat for a house and homestead. 

Masses of well-grown trees on the northerly sides of a place 
would be an excellent substitute for hills, and may occa- 
sionally be more pleasant and congenial. Plantations are 
always highly effective in regard to shelter, and it is a great 
point to find them already on the ground. 

Independently of shelter, however, if trees have not been 
drawn up and spoiled by neglect, there can scarcely be too 
many of them on any spot intended for habitation. Nothing 
is easier than to thin out and remove them, and there is 
always a great pleasure resulting from the formation of open- 
ings through old plantations, to get views of the outside 
country. If the trees be not unhealthy, therefore, and are 
well supplied with branches, the more abundantly they exist, 
the greater will be the capabilities of a place. Large or aged 
trees and shrubs are also valuable in destroying all semblance 
of newness or rawness in a garden, in giving an appearance 
of age and cultivation, in shutting out bad objects, in improv- 
ing the outlines and grouping of new plantations, and in sup- 
plying an increased amount and play of agreeable shadow. 

Available outbuildings, or walls, or fences of any kind, 
should not be wholly disregarded. A good existing fence, 



The Choice of a Place i 5 

especially if it be a hedge where such a thing would be wanted, 
will be of the greatest use, as it would take many years to 
rear it. But it is better that a plot should be wholly without 
every description of appurtenance than that things of an 
improper class or of bad construction or in a wrong position 
should exist to tempt the purchaser to retain them, as the 
greatest dissatisfaction is commonly experienced from patch- 
ing up an old house or other building that is not strictly 
suitable, and which can never afterwards be made so. It is 
far more pleasurable, and in the end more economical, to 
arrange and erect everything anew, than to submit to great 
inconvenience for the sake of preserving some relic of 
things that actually exist, because they happen to be ancient. 

9. The View. — Whatever kind of view is sought to be 
obtained from a place can be best compassed where it is 
situated on a slight eminence; and the rule will hold good 
whether the view be one of the garden itself, as seen from the 
house, of natural scenery, of an arable and agricultural dis- 
trict, of other estates, of a river or a lake or the sea, of distant 
hills, or of good individual objects. 

In relation to the garden itself as viewed from the house, 
some modification of the principle may perhaps seem neces- 
sary. Although a place, the ground of which rises as it 
recedes from the house, appears larger, because more of its 
surface is seen, yet the reverse of this would be the case 
when looked at from the outside of the garden or from 
any point just within its boundary; and a slope from the 
house gives to the latter an appearance of dryness and impor- 
tance, and enables one to bring in the exterior landscape 
more easily. This may be better understood by reference to 
fig. 1, which represents a piece of land the form of which 
is entirely convex, with the house on its summit. If the 
ground also rises in a gentle bank, just towards the bound- 



i6 



Landscape Gardening 



ary, such a slope being more perfectly seen from the house, 
will enlarge the apparent extent ; the general section of 
such a plot being shown in fig. 2. But any great amount 
of convexity in the surface of the ground as it slopes from 
the house would be an evil because it would seriously fore- 
shorten the whole and reduce its apparent size materially as 




Fig. 1. Improper Grade for a Lawn. 

seen from the windows. A very gentle slope, with only a 
small portion of roundness in it, will be preferable. 

One of the chief desiderata in regard to the surface levels 
of a plot of land is to obtain a good platform, which is toler- 
ably level, as a site for the house and garden. This will give 
the house the appearance of being more naturally placed, 




Fig. 2. Convex- Concave Grade for a Lawn. 

and will lighten the expense of earthwork and of foundations, 
while it will, in a hilly country, make the garden more com- 
fortably accessible. As a general rule the summit of a hill, 
if it be otherwise than a very low one, with a broad piece 
of table-land at the top, is not so eligible for a house as the 
face of an easy slope to the south. In the latter case the 



The Choice of a Place ij 

hill itself will afford some degree of shelter and of back- 
ground, which, with the necessary planting, will soon give a 
new place a habitable look, such as scarcely any amount of 
growth in the trees would impart to the crown of a hill. 

That the best views of things beyond a garden may be had 
from a partial elevation will be too obvious to need enforcing. 
In regard to water however, which forms such a beautiful 
and interesting addition to a landscape, a point of view con- 
siderably above its level will reveal its outline and extent 
more distinctly, and is therefore better adapted for large and 
bold sheets of it than for smaller lakes. Still, it will always 
be more pleasing and comfortable to be a good deal above a 
piece of water that it may seem in a valley and that the 
garden may convey the impression of being elevated. 

It is far from being desirable that only the features of 
nature should be seen from a place. The better parts of 
detached neighboring houses, good public buildings, places 
of worship, etc., if nicely brought into view, will give an air 
of habitation and sociality to a district. Rows of houses 
however, or masses of cottages, unless the latter be pleasing 
in themselves or picturesquely grouped, will be very unsightly 
and unsuitable constituents of a landscape. And a spot that 
overlooks a town, except partially and from a height and so 
as to catch merely the principal buildings, need never be 
sought. Still, glimpses of a navigable river, in the immediate 
vicinity of a large town, may, from the variety and motion 
of the craft employed upon it, give animation and beauty 
to a scene. So, likewise, a distant view of a town or of a 
portion of it where there is any irregularity of surface, or 
where the principal buildings serve to compose a picture, 
which is framed by nearer trees and plantations, may occa- 
sionally be rendered attractive and even striking. 

io. Aspect. — The principal aspect of a house like that 



i 8 Landscape Gardening 

of the garden should be as nearly as possible south-east. 
This will allow of the entrance being on the north-west side, 
the breakfast-room or library having a south-east aspect, the 
drawing-room with a south-east and a south-west window, 
and the dining-room looking north-east or north-west, which 
is perhaps the best arrangement. If the kitchen and offices 
be on the ground floor, they can be kept on the north-east 
side of the house where the yard will also be situated and 
from which last there should be a communication with the 
kitchen garden. 

A gentle eminence with the ground sloping a little away 
from it in all directions, especially towards the south, will be 
the best site for a house. An approach by a rising road and 
command of the outlying scenery will thus be attained, 
while the house will be dry and appear to be so. Its dignity 
and importance will also thus be enhanced. It should be put 
rather nearer the north-east than the south-west side of a 
plot that there may be some slight breadth of pleasure garden 
in front of the side drawing-room window, and that the offices 
and yard may not be too much obtruded. The center of 
the house should be about one-third the distance from the 
entrance to the opposite boundary of the pleasure grounds 
that two-thirds of the ground may be devoted to the private 
garden. 

I have here introduced the ground-plan of an imaginary 
house (fig. 3) by way of illustrating generally what would be 
a desirable arrangement of the rooms, windows, offices, etc., 
with reference to both aspect and convenience. Not that I 
would pretend to such a knowledge of architectural detail as 
would induce me to design a house that should actually be 
erected. But, having given the subject a good deal of con- 
sideration, and having frequently experienced the difficulty of 
adapting grounds to what would appear to be great defects 



The Choice of a Place 



19 




20 Landscape Gardening 

in architectural plans, I venture a hint or two on this point 
as viewed chiefly in the light of my own profession. 

By the sketch it will be seen that the entrance to the house 
is from the north-west, that no important windows are on 
that side, and that the vestibule (i) projects sufficiently 
beyond the main line of the building to allow of an easy 
approach to the door by a carriage. The vestibule is lighted 
from the south-west side and has a recess in it (2) for hats, 
cloaks, etc., and may be separated from the hall (3) by glass 
doors. The hall is also lighted by a window from the south- 
west which would render it cheerful and give it more of the 
character of a room. It might also have a fire-place opposite 
the entrance or against the wall that divides it from the 
staircase. It opens on to a corridor (4) connected with all 
the principal rooms, and has a large window overlooking the 
garden at the south-west end and a glass door which is the 
entrance to the conservatory at the other end. From this 
corridor, at about the center of the house the staircase (5), 
which is kept separate from the hall although directly con- 
nected with it and is opposite the doors of the chief rooms, 
turns to the north-west and has a broad window on the 
landing. The drawing-room placed at the south corner of the 
house, farthest from the offices and nearest the entrance door, 
has a large bow-window to the south-west, so as to obtain a 
view of the garden on that side and of the setting sun, and 
it has likewise two windows on the south-east side. The 
library or morning room (7) is next to the drawing-room with 
the window to the south-east; while the dining-room (8) is 
near the kitchen and offices, farthest from the entrance, and 
has two doors, one of which, close to the back passage, is 
for the servants. The principal window of the dining-room 
is to the south-east. There are two smaller windows to the 
north-east, one of which looks into the conservatory (9). It 



The Choice of a Place 21 

would thus be a cheerful breakfast or morning room, and the 
sun will have left it long before the usual dinner hour. The 
door from the corridor into the conservatory would also serve 
as a garden door, there being another door opposite to it into 
the garden. 

On the north-west side of the house there is an office, busi- 
ness, or gentleman's room (10), containing a recess for an 
iron safe (n), and readily accessible from the servants' apart- 
ments. Next there is a butler's pantry (12), with a recess 
for a plate safe (13), this apartment being placed as near as 
possible to the entrance door and the entertaining rooms, 
besides being in the neighborhood of the kitchen and over- 
looking, by its window, the approach to the house. At 14, 
detached alike from the main corridor and from the servants' 
passage, is a water-closet, and 15 is the housekeeper's room. 
The kitchen (16) has a scullery (17) and a pantry or store- 
closet (18) attached to it, the windows looking into the 
house-yard. A servants' corridor (19) is terminated by 
a back staircase (20), which is close to the servants' hall 
(21), the latter having its windows opening to the drying- 
ground and being near the back entrance. None of the 
office windows look into the garden or pleasure grounds, 
as the window for lighting the back corridor may be of 
dulled glass. 

In the house-yard (22) there is sufficient space for a cart to 
turn, and from this yard only is there access to the drying- 
ground (25), which has a hedge on the side next the house- 
yard. The coal-shed (24), ash-pit (25), and water-closet (26), 
are placed in a recess of the house-yard, where they are more 
out of observation, and the yard is thus left clearer, neater, 
and more compact. The numbers 27, 28, and 29 refer to a 
compost and rubbish yard, the kitchen garden, and a flower 
garden, respectively. 



22 



Landscape Gardening 




APPROACH TO HOUSE 



■RIGHT OF WAY 



DRIVE 



95 \\ <Of---\4 



^r 



Fig. 4. Arrangement of an American House, Designed by 
Willcox & Sayward, Seattle. 



The Choice of a Place 23 

II. Approaches. — In connection with every house there 
are certain matters of convenience and utility to be trans- 
acted, which, if they cannot be carried on apart from the 
ornamental portion of the garden, would interfere with its 
privacy and its beauty. Coals, and a variety of other neces- 
saries, have to be brought to a house, and rubbish of several 
kinds requires to be taken from it. To accomplish this, it is es- 
sential to the enjoyment of a place that it should have a back 
and front approach, and the facilities for affording these ought 
to be the subject of calculation when the land is obtained. 

When the access to a house is from a main road along its 
northerly side, separate approaches can readily be secured by 
entering at different points along that boundary. If the ap- 
proach be only on any side near the south, however, it is 
difficult to get a second entrance without grievously cutting 
up the best part of the place. And where one entrance is used 
on the south side for all purposes, the privacy of the garden 
will be almost entirely destroyed, and servants, tradesmen, 
vagrants, etc., will have the use of the best part of the garden, 
and be able to gaze into the best windows. It is a great 
nuisance, too, to have coals and similar dirty things conveyed 
over the principal approach to a house, and possibly deposited 
close to the front door. 

If, therefore, the chief entrance to a place has necessarily to 
be on the southerly side, it will be desirable to have a small 
public lane at the back of the land, by which access can be 
given to the offices of the house, and to the kitchen garden, 
without intruding upon the better portions of the pleasure 
grounds. 

That some degree of practical bearing may be given to 
this part of the book, an outline imaginary sketch (fig. 5), 
embodying some of the principal points which have been 
discussed, is now presented. The plan of the house, on a 



24 



Landscape Gardening 



previous page, is taken as a basis of the arrangement, and the 
present sketch is intended to exemplify, generally, a good 



PUBLIC ROAD 




Fig. 5. Outline Plan of a Place. 

shape for a small plot of land, with the relative position of 
the house, offices, approaches, gardens, field, etc., as these 



The Choice of a Place 25 

might appropriately be disposed. It does not purport to be 
a perfect model of design, but is simply brought forward to 
show how the various parts of a place may be arranged, and 
dovetailed into one another. For the sake of additional 
clearness, all minor details are omitted. 

The plot of land represented is supposed to contain about 
eight acres, having a public road along the north-western 
margin, the parts about the house being tolerably flat, the 
field sloping to the south-east, and an open country lying 
towards the south and east, with similar places to the south- 
west and the north-east. 

It will readily be perceived, from this sketch, that a good 
deal of accommodation is compressed into a small compass, 
and that, while each of the departments is kept essentially 
separate, they are all, where necessary, very thoroughly and 
directly connected. The principal approach to the house has 
a branch to the stables, and one back entrance is made to 
give access to the house-yard, the frame-ground, the stable- 
yard, and, through the latter, to the farm-yard, the yard 
attached to the gardener's cottage, and the field. The dry- 
ing-ground is connected only with the house-yard, and has on 
one side of it a hedge on which linen may be hung to bleach. 
The frame-ground communicates with the house-yard and 
the garden-yard, and thus affords a direct way from the 
kitchen garden to the back entrance door. There is also 
space enough for pits and frames on the north side of the 
frame-ground, which will be beyond the shade of walls or 
buildings, and the separating line between this ground and 
the garden-yard is merely a hedge. A cart entrance into the 
frame-ground completes the facilities of communication, by 
allowing soils or manure to be introduced or rubbish carted 
away. The pit for rubbish in the corner of this ground 
would enable the gardener always to keep it clean and tidy. 



26 Landscape Gardening 

The position of the stable-yard, on the north side of the 
house, is a favorable one, as there is comparatively little 
wind from that quarter to convey any kind of nuisance, and 
the stables are conveniently near, without being uncomfort- 
ably or obtrusively so. It will be noticed, too, that the stable 
buildings are opposite the center of the kitchen garden, so 
that the clock-tower, designed to surmount the former, would 
be an object from the middle walk; and both the stables 
and the farm buildings face the south-east, which would ren- 
der them dry, pleasant, and healthy. The situation of the 
manure pits is likewise convenient for conveying the manure 
to the frame-ground, the kitchen garden, or the field; and 
the manure made in the cow house and pig sties could, by 
the doors into the garden-yard and into the back road, be 
removed with similar ease. 

In the walls, too, there would be considerable economy of 
space and material, as most of them are made to answer a 
double purpose. The wall on the south-east and north-east 
sides of the kitchen garden is capable of being used for fruit 
trees on both sides, and that along the south-western margin, 
as just mentioned, serves for ornamental climbers on the side 
towards the pleasure grounds. 

By placing the gardener's cottage near the north corner of 
the land the whole property is protected on that side and the 
gardener is brought into the midst of his more important 
duties. A path as shown from the high road to the cottage 
would enable any one to come to it independently without 
passing into the grounds. 

A little architectural skill in the treatment of the various 
elevations, and the adoption of such details and decorations 
as would give harmony and consistency to the whole might, 
I conceive, produce an agreeable effect of grouping from so 
varied an outline, and by a judicious adaptation of the roofs 



The Choice of a Place 27 



turn even the subordinate offices to advantage. The gen- 
eral picturesqueness and artistic effect of any group of 
buildings must manifestly depend on the treatment of the 
roofs with regard to material, pitch, breadth of eaves and 
diversity of elevation. 

To sum up the suggestions offered under this head, though 
few pieces of land would perfectly fulfill al the several require- 
ments thus set forth, it may safely be affirmed that such as 
make the nearest approach to them will produce the greatest 
amount of comfort and satisfaction and be most permanently 
fertile in the various sources of pleasure. And where two 
places comprising a fair proportion of some of these capa- 
bilities, but wanting in others, should come into competition, 
the preponderance in either of those particular merits to 
which most importance is attached by the individual select- 
ing, must determine their relative desirableness. 

It is not for a moment supposed that the question has here 
been fully considered. All that has been pretended to be 
done is to offer a few leading hints The standing, occupa- 
tions, pursuits, objects, connections, or tastes of each person 
choosing a place for residence will all more or less affect 
his own judgment. 



CHAPTER II 

What to Avoid 

When a physician is called in to prescribe for a patient, 
one of the first things which is commonly found necessary 
is to advise what the invalid should abstain from taking, and 
how he should endeavor to escape from injurious influences. 
This treatment is often found sufficient without the use of 
any medicine and in all cases greatly aids the application of 
more active remedies. And thus it is with respect to any 
one who advises on other subjects. No good foundation can 
be laid for such works as the present unless all erroneous 
and prejudicial notions be first cleared away. 

In aiming, therefore, to bring the subject fairly before the 
reader, it will be necessary, at starting, to show what are the 
things which the amateur should not do, before proceeding to 
speak of such as should be actually performed. Many a per- 
son who has gardened for himself has no doubt for want of 
such beacons irretrievably spoiled his place before discov- 
ering his error, or at least involved himself in a consider- 
ably larger outlay, or rendered the whole design patchy and 
disjointed. 

i. Overdoing. — Possibly the greatest and most preva- 
lent mistake of those who lay out gardens for themselves is at- 
tempting too much. A mind unaccustomed to generalize or 
to take in a number of leading objects at a glance finds out 
the different points embraced in landscape gardening one by 
one, and, unable to decide which of them can most suitably 
be applied, determines on trying to compass more than can 

28 



What to Avoid 29 

really be attained. One thing after another is at different 
times observed and liked, in some place visited, and each is 
successively wished to be transferred to the observer's own 
garden, without regard to its fitness for the locality or its 
relation to what has previously been done. A neighbor or 
a friend has a place in which certain features are exquisitely 
developed and these are at once sought to be copied. The 
practice of cutting up a garden into mere fragments, which is 
unhappily of too frequent occurrence, is the natural result of 
such a state of things. 

There are several ways in which a place may be frittered 
away, so as to become wholly deficient in character and 
beauty. It may be too much broken up in its general 
arrangement; and this is the worst variety of the fault, be- 
cause least easily mended and most conspicuous. To aim 
at comprising the principal features proper to the largest 
gardens in those of the most limited size is surely not a 
worthy species of imitation, and one which can only excite 
ridicule and end in disappointment. There is a wide differ- 
ence between variety which is desirable and the separation 
into minute parts, or blending of incongruous materials, 
the former being quite compatible with both unity and 
simplicity. 

A place may be likewise too much carved up into detached 
portions, or overshadowed or reduced in apparent size by 
planting too largely. Trees and shrubs constitute the great- 
est ornaments of a garden, but they soon become disagree- 
able when a place is overrun with them by contracting the 
space, shutting out light, rendering the grass imperfect and 
the walks mossy. Nothing could be more damp, gloomy, 
and confined than a small place too much cumbered with 
plantations. Nor is the consideration of its influences on 
the health of the occupants at all unimportant, for where 



30 Landscape Gardening 

sun and wind cannot get free play a moist and stagnant air, 
very injurious to all animal life, is necessarily occasioned. 

But if this be true with regard to any superfluous vege- 
tation in general, it is much more so in respect to large 
timber trees. To introduce or retain many of these in a small 
garden is quite contrary to all the principles of good taste, 
and conducive only to trouble and discomfort. All the evils 
which attend a redundancy of the lower forms of plants are 
greatly aggravated, and carried to their highest point by a 
similar overgrowth of trees. 

In the immediate neighborhood of the house, moreover, 
it is particularly desirable that trees and shrubs should not 
abound. Independently of darkening the windows, they 
communicate great dampness to the walls, and prevent that 
action of the wind upon the building which alone can keep 
it dry, comfortable, and consequently healthy. It is almost 
impossible for any house to be otherwise than damp which 
is too much and too closely surrounded by plantations. Any 
portion of these, therefore, which may be necessary to shut 
out the offices or outbuildings should be placed as far from 
the walls as practicable, and by no means allowed to be in 
contact with them. 

Another mode in which the effect of a garden may be marred 
is in the formation of numerous flower beds, or groups of 
mixed shrubs and flowers on the lawn. This is a very com- 
mon failing and one which greatly disfigures a place, espe- 
cially as, where intended only for flowers, such beds usually 
remain vacant and naked for several months in the year. 
Flower beds, too, when introduced in any quantity on a 
small lawn, have an exceedingly artificial appearance, remind- 
ing one of the character common to children's gardens. They 
interfere sadly with all ideas of breadth, harmony, and 
repose. 



What to Avoid 31 

A still more striking interruption to that beautiful con- 
tinuity, which does so much in the way of producing size and 
expression, occurs when unnecessary divisions are introduced 
into a place. These may be employed to detach parts of a 
very different character; or, as in the old system of hedging in 
particular portions, may simply be intended to change the 
scene suddenly, or furnish certain lines which are probably 
supposed to accord with the general character of the house. 
Not only, however, are those formal divisions mostly inad- 
missible in a limited space, but all kinds of separating lines, 
though varied and broken in the most artful manner, must 
be condemned, as a rule, unless the place is tolerably large. 
These remarks of course do not apply to plantations or 
fences between the kitchen and pleasure garden, or between 
the latter and the field, nor do they refer to those irregular 
masses of shrubs or trees which may sometimes be thrown 
partly across a lawn to occasion a fresh scene behind them. 
They are simply aimed at such separating lines, whether of 
fence or plantation, as might be dispensed with or for which 
there is no real necessity, as well as at the practice of splitting 
up a place into minute parts instead of making it as spacious 
and airy as possible. 

Partly for the reasons just alleged, and also because they 
introduce ugly strips of a conspicuously different color on a 
lawn, a multiplicity of walks, beyond what are absolutely 
requisite, is very undesirable in a small piece of ground. It is 
acknowledged that numerous walks conduce to variety, but 
it is much better to have only that moderate amount of the 
latter which can be attained without the sacrifice of simplicity. 
Walks that have no definite or sufficiently important object, 
and do not serve to reveal features or aspects of a place 
that would otherwise be imperfectly seen or entirely lost, are 
always to be avoided. 



32 Landscape Gardening 

A garden may also be overloaded with a variety of things, 
which, though ornamental in themselves, and not at all out of 
keeping with the house or the principal elements of the land- 
scape, may yet impart to it an affected or ostentatious charac- 
ter. An undue introduction of sculptured or other figures, 
vases, seats and arbors, baskets for plants, and such like 
objects would come within the limits of this description. 
And there is nothing of which people in general are so intol- 
erant in others as the attempt to crowd within a confined 
space the appropriate adornments of the most ample gardens. 
It is invariably taken as evidence of a desire to appear to 
be and to possess that which the reality of the case will not 
warrant, and is visited with the reprobation and contempt 
commonly awarded to ill-grounded assumption. An unpre- 
suming garden, like a modest individual, may have great 
defects without challenging criticism, and will even be liked 
and praised because of its very unobtrusiveness. But where a 
great deal is aimed at, and there is much pretension, whether 
in persons or things, scrutiny seems invited, incongruities 
are magnified, and actual merits are passed by unnoticed. 

Artificial mounds, though they may be very useful for 
some objects, and conducive to effect in certain positions, 
will be exceedingly unsatisfactory if made too high, too 
conspicuous, or too decidedly indicative of the employment 
of art in their formation. If the ground of the neighbor- 
ing country be very flat they will appear all the more out 
of place and require adapting with the nicest elaboration. 
Everything in the shape of a large hillock or long line of 
bank that has no particular meaning and is badly connected 
with the general surface can never present a pleasing charac- 
ter. Some evidence of a sufficient intention or purpose and 
a manifest correspondence with the rest of the scene will be 
absolutely demanded in all such elevations. 



What to Avoid 



33 



2. Rustic Work. — Among the more specific features to be 
repudiated in a small garden the employment of rockeries 
or other rustic objects in connection with the house, or in its 
immediate neighborhood, may be next mentioned. Every 
house must be regarded as a work of art whatever may be 
its class or merit, and there would consequently be a want 
of harmony in associating it with anything composed of, 
or resembling, the uncultivated parts of nature. However 
ingeniously it may be contrived, a rockery near a house 
must be considered radically wrong, and though great skili 
be used in adaptation or a variety of fortunate accidents 
eventually awaken interest, these can never wholly atone 
for the fundamental error. Nor will the way in which 
such things are generally managed admit of even this extenu- 
ation and excuse. And as a retired corner could almost 
always be found for cultivating rock-plants if desired, those 
who would steer clear of the vulgarities and irregularities of 
mere cockneyism will do well not to permit anything of the 
kind I have been describing around their houses. When 
composed of such materials as shells, pieces of old porcelain, 
scoriae, and other small, artificial or manufactured articles 
and interspersed with grotesque looking busts, heads, etc., as 
is frequently the case, their use in connection with houses is 
all the more to be deprecated. 

As similarly interfering with the harmony of a place, the 
employment of conspicuous grottoes, towers, summer houses, 
or other buildings within a short distance or in open view 
from the house, cannot be defended on any known principle 
in landscape arrangement. If very sparingly introduced, and 
of a quiet appearance and partially concealed, architectural 
objects though not in the same style as the house may be 
occasionally admissible. It is against the staring and grossly 
peculiar forms sometimes met with in suburban gardens that 



34 Landscape Gardening 

the chief objection lies. A castellated grotto, for example, 
with the greatest and most fantastic variety of outline and 
numerous turrets is occasionally to be seen from a house 
either in the Grecian or Italian form, or from one of those 
square, commonplace erections from which everything like 
style is expressly omitted. 

3. Overplanting. — The practice of planting much imme- 
diately around a house is erroneous in other ways than those 
yet pointed out. It prevents the true proportions, outlines, 
and details of a building from being properly seen and rightly 
appreciated. If a house be well designed, it should make a 
picture of itself and only require the aid of vegetable forms, 
at a little distance from it, as supports and accompaniments. 
An occasional tree or plant may be valuable to balance the 
several parts, to soften abrupt transitions of outline, to sober 
and break a glare of color, or to impart an air of finish in 
some cases; and even a mass of trees or shrubs would often 
be effective in blinding inferior parts of the building, or 
covering defects of symmetry or enrichment. But where 
the architect has thoroughly studied his subject and treated 
it as a picture, aids of this sort will be but little wanted 
and should be adopted with the utmost care. There is 
probably no one point in landscape gardening wherein less 
of the true feeling of art is exhibited than in the choice of 
accompaniments to a building. 

4. Tree Belts. — The planting of tree belts on small places 
is always quite inappropriate. They consist of strips of trees, 
either of equal or irregular width, placed just within the 
boundary, so as to confine the view wholly to the place itself. 
They serve, in fact, completely to shut it in by a kind of 
green wall, which effectually excludes a great deal of sunlight 
and air and all appearance of distance. They make the 
garden a sort of prison which cannot be seen into by others 



What to Avoid 35 

and from which not a glimpse can be obtained of what is 
passing without. Privacy no doubt they may secure, but 
it is the privacy of the cell or the cloister, — a sort of 
monastic seclusion which would better fit the tenant of a 
hermitage. 

Nothing could be more monotonous than a timber belt in 
which the trees are nearly all of the same age, height and 
general character. All variety of effect and all ideas of in- 
definiteness are of course out of the question under such cir- 
cumstances. To whatever part of the garden we go the same 
hard and uniform boundary terminates the view. There is 
no play of outline, none of that beautiful illusion which arises 
from skillful connection with other property. The cheerful- 
ness of sunlight is curtailed, and the healthy vigor common 
to plants which have plenty of light and air is not to be 
found. The walks become green and slimy, and are always 
more or less damp, while a portion of the grass is made feeble 
and sickly or gradually dwindles away into mere mossiness. 

But the worst feature of all these evils is that they have 
seldom any origin in necessity, and could usually be obviated. 
There are extremely few places so thoroughly surrounded by 
bad objects as to allow of no breaks in the boundary and no 
peeps into the country beyond. And even where such is the 
case considerable diversity and interest may be created by 
the use of plants of different heights and habits to act as the 
screen. Indeed, a boundary that must necessarily be a bar- 
rier to all further view into the outlying country may be so 
contrived and treated as scarcely to appear like a boundary 
at all, as I shall hereafter have occasion to show. I need only 
add here that formal, regular belts, especially where the trees 
are planted in rows, are in the worst possible taste. 

Those masses of trees or shrubs known as clumps, and noto- 
rious for their extreme clumsiness, are a part of the same 



36 



Landscape Gardening 



system as belts, and alike open to reprobation. They are 
either roundish, or of no regular figure, nor can they be called 
irregular. As generally used, they can only be described as 
large spots or blots in the landscape, having neither beauty 
in themselves nor connection with anything else. It is prob- 
able that they were originally intended as the foundation or 
nucleus of a scattered group, merely filled up for a time, to 




Fig. 6. Tree Belt — Monotonous. 




— - i-i./'v^:- 




Fig. 7. Same as Fig. 6 — Improved. 



obtain protection and greater rapidity of growth. But such 
objects might be just as well fulfilled in conjunction with 
some more indefinite and pleasing external outline. 

Narrow strips or lines of plantation are among the most 
tasteless forms which belts can assume, and are equally mean 
and undignified wherever else they may occur. They can so 
readily be seen through and will frequently present at the 
lower parts a mere assemblage of bare stems. Their effect 
is most meager. They want breadth and massiveness. 



What to Avoid 



37 



Hence, when plantations are necessarily so straitened, they 
should be composed mainly of such low-growing shrubs and 
dwarf trees, especially evergreens, as will, by being planted 
tolerably close and furnished down to the ground, produce 
a thicket-like character that shall conceal or disguise their 
actual dimensions. 




Fig. 8. Monotonous Belt on Rolling Ground. 




Fig. o. Improvement of Fig. 8. 



In the subjoined sketches, fig. 6 shows a narrow belt of 
trees, similar in size and character, such as is frequently seen 
round the margins of small parks, where, if undergrowth of 
any kind has ever been planted, it has become killed by the 
density and shade of the larger trees. Fig. 7 will serve as a 
hint of the way in which such a belt may be broken up and 
its form still more diversified by the use of a few intermediate 
bushes, such as thorns or hollies. 



38 Landscape Gardening 

The same defect rendered probably a little more manifest 
from the superior beauty and variety of the ground line will 
be apparent in fig. 8, which exhibits a belt traversing an 
undulating surface. And the mode of remedying the evil is 
partially indicated in fig. 9, where the trees are thrown into 
masses on the slopes and summits of the swells in the ground, 
the hollow being left unclothed for the purpose of marking 
the full extent of its depression. 

5. Bad Fences. — Any description of high fence that con- 
fines a place too much is as faulty in all essential respects as a 
belt of trees, and in some particulars even more so. It has a 
harsher, more forbidding, and exclusive appearance, and its 
upper line will necessarily be stiffer. It gives an unkindly 
and inhospitable expression to a place. Besides, high close 
fences keep out air even more than trees, and also produce, 
for a given distance, a more complete shade. They should 
never be employed unless they are really indispensable, and 
then they ought to have the hardness of their lines relieved 
by trees and shrubs inside, or with ivy or other climbers 
scrambling irregularly over them. Those sides of a garden 
where shelter is required must, however, be excepted from the 
rule, though it will generally be found that trees are a much 
better screen for gardens than a wall, provided there be 
breadth enough to admit of a sufficiently dense plantation. 

6. Over-exposure. — There is an opposite extreme to that 
just described, into which some persons are apt to fall by 
rendering their gardens too exposed. Examples might be 
found in which from a love of display or a disposition to give 
others the benefit of whatever enjoyment happens to be 
possessed, every inch of the garden is bared to public gaze. 
There is thus no quiet, no retirement, and scarcely any 
of the pleasure arising from the ownership of property. 
A lady or gentleman fond of gardening cannot engage in any 



What to Avoid 



39 



of its pursuits without attracting general notice; dogs and 
other animals will have the run of the place; and the luxury 
of cherishing song-birds must be relinquished, for they will 
not frequent a garden that is so unsheltered. 

Nor is this all. Every beautiful flower that unfolds itself, 
or shrub that spreads out its attractive berries about Christ- 
mas time, affords so many temptations to pilfering for the 
passers-by, among whom there will ordinarily be some, at 
least, who will be unable to resist the inducement, and the 
mortification of seeing the choicest and most admired favor- 
ites thus stolen will be frequently incurred. 

7. Removal of Trees. — Where a garden is to be made on 
land that has been planted at some previous period, and trees 
of considerable magnitude exist upon it, especial care should 
be used in reference to the removal of any of these, so as not 
to render the place too open and bare; for where fine trees 
are known to have stood, an air of nakedness and poverty of 
the higher forms of vegetation will be all the more manifest 
and displeasing. There is no subject on which greater delib- 
eration is demanded than the cutting down or removal of 
large trees, as nothing changes the character of a place more. 

8. Mixed Styles. — The adoption of too great a mixture 
of styles in gardens is an error that should be specially 
guarded against. It is the source of numberless little incon- 
gruities and improprieties, and although, where the space is 
very small, it may be somewhat difficult to attain any style 
at all, yet a mixture of the formal and the free, the decorated 
and the simple, the picturesque and the polished is some- 
times seen attempted, and with the worst effects. Straight 
and regular lines can rarely be blended with curved and flow- 
ing ones nor can rough and broken forms be fitly associated 
with such as are smooth and graceful. Things which have 
no affinity in their character, or expression, should not, except 



40 Landscape Gardening 

in very rare and peculiar instances, be brought into conjunc- 
tion. 

9. Unsuitable ornaments are things which many persons 
who have only a glimmering of the requirements of art have 
a great propensity for placing about gardens. These may 
be of the nature of artificial basins of water, ponds, figures, 
bridges, flag-poles, prospect-towers, cannon, groups of stones, 
spar, or roots, with objects of a similar nature, which may or 
may not be fitting ornaments for a garden in themselves, but 
which may be so inappropriately disposed, or so entirely 
unallied to the prevailing characteristics of a particular spot, 
as to be wholly inadmissible. In some few cases it may 
happen that the vulgarity or the ugliness of an individual 
object offends the eye of taste, but a much more common 
cause for complaint exists in the passion for scraping together 
all sorts of good or indifferent things without adequate regard 
being paid to their affinity to each other, or their suitableness 
for the place in which they are deposited. 

10. Cheap Surprises.— The making arrangements in the 
plan of a place for occasioning to visitors one or more little 
surprises as they are passing round the garden, is extremely 
unsatisfactory at best. It is an appeal to the lowest species 
of admiration, and all the pleasure it may occasion is but 
momentary, and can never be renewed to the same individual. 
When on a small scale, too, the machinery by which the effect 
is produced will be always sadly apparent. Solid merits and 
substantial beauties are much to be preferred, for the pleasure 
to be derived from them never ceases and does not satiate. 

11. Eccentricities. — From a similar cause, all manner of 
eccentricities in a garden will, if they have nothing better to 
boast of, never obtain lasting admiration and, as in personal 
character, are more generally the evidences of a feeble mind 
than of the possession of genius. It is far safer and more 



What to Avoid 41 

conducive to that impartation of pleasure to others which 
all seek or profess to wish for, to keep only in the beaten 
track and strive after excellences which are sufficiently known 
and acknowledged. Enough of freshness and originality to 
satisfy any reasonably active mind may easily be attained 
by new combinations of the ever-varying materials of nature, 
without striving to jumble together things that can have no 
possible correspondence or relationship. 

Everything partaking of the nature of a sham, also what- 
ever is wanting in real excellence, will be discarded by persons 
desiring to obtain credit for correct taste. Artificial ruins, 
mere fronts to buildings, figures to represent animals, bridges 
that have no meaning or for which there is no necessity, or 
any other merely artificial representations of natural or other 
objects, where the aim and intention are to induce the belief 
that they are really natural, will commonly be despised when 
the trick is discovered. 

12. Formality. — The problem of how to treat a very 
small place is an exceedingly difficult one. On the one hand 
a large formal treatment is apt to appear pretentious, while 
on the other hand, the natural style is sure to seem cramped. 
Whatever is attempted must be carried out with extreme 
simplicity. In general modern taste leans toward very simple 
compositions in geometrical lines, avoiding both the incon- 
gruity of flowing lines and the ambitiousness of complicated 
formal work. 

13. Large geometrical figures, unless they embrace the 
whole garden, are never satisfactory, even when kept ex- 
tremely simple. The more their parts are multiplied, the 
more destructive they are to dignity, breadth, and repose. 
Flower gardens, therefore, and other separate parts of a 
place, when geometrically laid out in close beds, and put in 
the front of the house, should bear but a small proportion 



42 Landscape Gardening 

to the rest of the garden or they will annihilate all semblance 
of extent. At least two-thirds of the length of the lawn, 
measuring away from the house, should be free from such 
innovations. And if three-fourths, or even five-sixths, of it 
be unencumbered in this manner there will be greater har- 
mony of parts. 

Two exceptions to the application of this doctrine may 
probably be admitted. Where a rich pastured country, suf- 
ficiently spotted with timber trees, lies in front of a place, and 
by the skillful treatment of the boundary fence appears to 
belong to the owner, a strictly formal plan of the garden may 
be effective. And the same remark will apply where a very 
picturesque and rugged piece of natural scenery joins on to a 
place. [This opinion of the author is allowed to stand on 
account of its general interest, though it is by no means 
shared by the present editor.] 

14. Monotony. — Akin to the style just condemned in its 
relation to moderate-sized gardens, is a certain baldness and 
plainness, which may likewise exist under different modes of 
arrangement, and which, more than almost any other charac- 
teristic, contributes to make a place appear poor and unin- 
teresting. Where the space will at all justify it,— and it must 
be restricted indeed if it will not do so, — the walks and 
plants can be so disposed as to afford as many different views 
as possible. From no single point, unless it be an elevated 
one, should every part be seen. A lawn need not be like a 
bowling-green, with a simple fringe of plantation, but should 
have a variety of minor glades and recesses, that are only to 
be discovered and examined from particular points. Bare- 
ness is nearly as faulty as meretriciousness of ornament. 

Monotony of character may likewise often be deepened and 
confirmed by the endeavor to bring the whole of the garden 
too much into one level or slope. In the formal style, some 



What to Avoid 43 

approximation to flatness is positively required. But for 
irregular gardens, with broken groups and serpentine walks, 
any natural undulations, or even some little attempt at arti- 
ficial variety of surface, will be a decided improvement 
to a garden if softly and appropriately finished off. It is 
customary, however, for persons who do not study the subject 
to commence laying out their gardens by making all the 
ground as level as possible. A more unfortunate error could 
not be fallen into, for character might be better obtained by 
changes of level than by almost any other similar means. 

15. Needless Drives. — In the treatment of a small place 
it is further expedient to reject everything that has an air 
of ostentation or appears only proper to more extensive 
domains. In many instances, therefore, a carriage drive to 
the house, although often very convenient, would not accord 
with the limits of a garden and is consequently better 
omitted. No positive rule as to what length of approach 
would justify the use of a drive can be laid down but in 
general it should be at least thirty or forty yards. . How- 
ever, the extent of the entire place will be the best guide. 

It should be borne in mind that a carriage-drive not only 
looks assuming, but it tends greatly to reduce the size of a 
small garden by cutting it up and exhibiting a large portion 
of it in gravel. From the peculiar color of the latter, it 
always deceives the eye as to the extent of surface it covers; 
an area of gravel never appearing nearly so large as one of 
equal dimensions laid down in grass. Green is at once more 
conspicuous and more agreeable to the sight. And grass 
possesses these qualities at all seasons. Hence, to make the 
most of a place as to size, broad masses of gravel should be 
kept out of a cottage or villa garden. 

Where a house is sufficiently contiguous to the high road 
and its general character warrants such an appendage, an 



44 Landscape Gardening 

entrance court, treated architecturally and with proper 
accompaniments may be an excellent substitute for a short 
drive; and in this case a large graveled area with perhaps 
bold margins of grass, a few evergreens and some climbing 
plants here and there scrambling over the walls would be 
wholly unobjectionable. 

A carriage- drive that would pass the windows of any of the 
principal rooms of a house or terminate nearly in front of 
them would be still more exposed to the objections here 
urged. For callers or visitors to have to pass the windows 
of sitting-rooms is always an undesirable arrangement though 
this has sometimes to be tolerated from a variety of con- 
siderations. But the evil is much aggravated when such an 
approach is one for vehicles also, and servants as well as 
friends have thus the free use of it. Of course this will 
depend very much on the arrangement of the house, the cor- 
rect position of the entrance door being a matter frequently 
overlooked by architects. 

16. Kitchen Gardens. — Some gardens are so contracted 
or of such a peculiar shape that the appropriation of any 
part of them to vegetables or fruits appears quite inconsistent 
with the attainment of any kind of beauty in the ornamental 
portions. And in such instances the kitchen department 
may very properly be omitted. A mere scrap or corner of 
kitchen garden which only serves to mar the general design 
can afford no real pleasure, and the food it would supply 
is commonly otherwise easily obtainable. The propriety of 
devoting a piece of ground to these purposes will depend 
more on the general figure of the land and the position 
and arrangement of the house than on the mere size of the 
plot. If the ground lies entirely in front of the principal 
windows and is but narrow, a kitchen garden would seem 
inadmissible in point of taste. Besides, kitchen gardens are 



What to Avoid 45 

usually by no means so profitable as they are thought to be, 
and must be regarded more as a luxury than a source of saving. 
Vegetables can in most cases be purchased more cheaply 
than they can be grown, and it is merely for securing their 
freshness, and the pleasure of having grown them that a 
kitchen garden is worth consideration. Herbs and salads are 
alone of any real consequence, since it is very convenient to 
have these at hand for any emergency, and they can ordi- 
narily be put in some quiet corner of the grounds, where they 
will not obtrude on the attention. 



CHAPTER III 

General Principles 

In proceeding to the various points which the designer of a 
garden should endeavor to compass, as far as the nature of 
the locality and other unavoidable conditions will allow, it 
may be well to premise that any rules here furnished can 
only be of general application. It is obviously impossible 
to lay down principles which shall embrace every case, 
and hence some who practice landscape gardening depend 
mainly on their eye both in creating and judging of artificial 
scenery. Doubtless, too, there is much in almost every gar- 
den which requires it to be treated peculiarly, in some way 
or other; the outline and surface of the plot, the position, 
arrangement, and aspects of the house, and the requirements 
of the owner, having something in them different from what 
they are in any other place, and consequently needing a cor- 
responding difference of treatment. And it is in the skillful 
use and blending of these various objects and purposes that 
the art of the landscape gardener consists. In reference, 
therefore, to such circumstances, general rules would seem 
at first sight to be of little use, or an actual disadvantage, 
embarrassing and encumbering rather than aiding the prac- 
titioner. 

But the advantage of fixed principles, even in the most 
uncommon and complex examples, will be overlooked only on 
a cursory view. Closer observation will always show that, 
although there may be cases in which no recognized law 
could be carried out in its naked simplicity, yet some modi- 
fication or mixture of one or more rules must be adopted in 

4 6 



General Principles 47 

order to produce any really good effect, and that, while such 
a result may be accomplished by accident, it is far easier, and 
more satisfactory, to attain it by design. In what follows, 
then, most of the rules given will be found more or less appli- 
cable to all gardens of the class treated of, though they will 
often require much consideration, and some ability, to adapt 
them to pa ticular localities. It will, however, be a primary 
aim to render them as suited as is possible to the condition 
of the majority of those likely to consult them. 

1. Simplicity is the first thing to be aimed at in laying out 
a garden. In its absence there can be no indication of refined 
taste. A design may be essentially simple, without being 
bald or severe; and intricate, without becoming labyrinthine. 
Simplicity is the opposite of ostentation and extravagance; 
intricacy, of mere blankness. Simplicity is the offspring of 
the highest taste, and is a prime element in pure beauty. 
Not that it altogether characterizes the beauty which is, 
"when unadorned, adorned the most." For it is perfectly 
consistent with some degree of chaste ornament. 

A garden should have more or less simplicity, according to 
its size and character, in its main outlines, arrangements, and 
furniture. The transitions in it should all be easy and flow- 
ing, the lines all graceful, the decorations elegant. Very 
rarely will a small garden bear being furnished with any 
striking evidences of wealth/ luxury, or elaboration. The 
hand of art should touch it so lightly as to leave few traces 
of its operations. Its forms and figures ought all to be gently 
rounded off, and unite softly with each other. Lawn and 
gravel, shrub, tree, and flower, with all the less common 
and more costly appendages, must appear to belong to one 
another, and to fit into the place in which they occur. 

2. Intricacy. — At the same time, the intricacy which 
arises from a partial and pleasing involution of parts, from 



48 Landscape Gardening 

slight and insensible changes, and from that artful arrange- 
ment of single plants and groups which produces freshness of 
aspect and newness of vista from so many different points 
of view, must not be neglected. For a garden may be all 
that is correct, tasteful, and classical, and yet, like a well- 
molded countenance, prove dull, tame, and void of expres- 
sion. It is play of feature, — a something behind and beyond, 
which has not been explored, — novelty of expression, varia- 
tion of aspect, an alluring attraction onwards after higher 
beauties, — that constitutes, in both instances, the life, the 
spirit, and the charm. Intricacy is, in fact, the very soul of 
landscape gardening. 

3. Convenience is likewise a thing which requires to be 
duly studied and provided for. As, in a house, a beautiful 
exterior will never compensate for defective internal accom- 
modation, so, with a garden, the most perfectly tasteful dispo- 
sition of parts will never give real satisfaction if comfort and 
convenience have been sacrificed. It must be remembered 
that a garden is intended not merely to be looked at from the 
windows of a house or the elevation of a terrace-walk, but to 
be used and to be enjoyed. The walks should therefore pass 
as easily and as directly to their appointed objects as can well 
be accomplished, and they should be dry in wet weather and 
smooth during drought. The land must also be well drained, 
so as to be capable of being worked or walked upon at all 
times,. Every feature of interest ought always to be com- 
fortably accessible. A flower garden and a greenhouse should 
be near or adjoining the house for the sake of affording the 
family ready means of examining or gathering the flowers. 
A kitchen garden should not be far from the kitchen, that 
the produce may be conveyed to the latter with little labor, 
and without attracting observation. It should further be 
placed near the stable-yard, that manure may be easily 



General Principles 49 

moved from the one to the other. And, when practicable, 
a kitchen garden may, on one side at least, abut upon a road 
or lane, that soil, manure, etc., may be carted to it at any 
time. 

Places for preserving tools and depositing rubbish, and 
means for obtaining water when required, back paths or 
roads to the kitchen and offices, space for drying linen, length- 
ened walks round a paddock for exercise, with an arbor or 
summer house in it for shelter from showers or storms, and 
for reading and retirement at other periods, are some of the 
various conveniences which should be taken into account 
in laying out a place, especially as many of them cannot 
be obtained at all unless they are secured in the first 
instance. 

4. Compactness. — In order still further to attain the 
full advantage of convenience to economize space and labor, 
and to make everything appear orderly and well-contrived, 
compactness of arrangement will be particularly influential. 
Nothing tends more to exhibit a want of design, or to produce 
general slovenliness, than a scattered and ill-considered dis- 
posal of the different parts of a place. Each department that 
is connected with another — and all should be but parts of a 
combined whole — ought not merely to adjoin but to fit into 
its neighboring department, so that no space may be lost, 
no untidy corners created, and no unnecessary expenditure 
occasioned in the erection of walls or other divisions. In 
fact each wall or fence in the interior of a place should, 
if possible, be made to serve a double purpose, and act as a 
boundary to two separate compartments, or form a part of 
two distinct sets of buildings. Thus, the wall on the north 
side of a kitchen garden may be made to constitute one of the 
fences to a house-yard, a garden-yard, a stable-court, and 
even a small farm-yard; while the back of such a wall might 



50 Landscape Gardening 

also be used to support various low lean-to sheds, that may 
happen to be needed in either of these yards. 

5. Seclusion. — Few characteristics of a garden contribute 
more to render it agreeable than snugness and seclusion. 
They serve to make it appear peculiarly one's own, convert- 
ing it into a kind of sanctum. A place that has neither 
of these qualities might almost as well be public property. 
Those who love their garden often want to walk, work, rumi- 
nate, read, romp, or examine the various changes and develop- 
ments of nature in it, and to do s6 unobserved. All that 
attaches us to a garden, and renders it a delightful and cher- 
ished object, seems marred if it has no privacy. It is a 
luxury to walk, sit, or recline at ease, on a summer's day, 
and drink in the sights and sounds and perfumes peculiar to 
a garden, without fear of interruption, or of dress, attitude, 
or occupation being observed and criticized. 

Something more, however, than mere privacy is involved 
in the idea of snugness. It includes shelter, warmth, shade, 
agreeable seats for rest, arbors for a rural meal, and velvety 
slopes of turf, overshadowed or variously checkered by foliage, 
to recline upon. A room that may fitly be called snug is 
small in its dimensions, and rather amply furnished, with its 
window not open at any point to the public gaze. A garden, 
likewise, to deserve the same epithet, should have its princi- 
pal or subordinate parts of rather contracted limits, be fur- 
nished somewhat liberally with tall-growing plants and trees, 
which will produce some degree of shade and present an air 
of comparative isolation. 

Where there is sufficient extent, it is probably better to have 
one or more small nooks, or partially detached gardens of a 
particular kind, to realize something of both snugness and 
seclusion, and give the leading and broader portions of the 
garden a more airy and open character. Still, in any case, 



General Principles 5 1 

unless it be purely for show, a certain amount of privacy- 
ought assuredly to be sought after. And the more thoroughly 
it is gained, the more pleasurable to most persons, and the 
more accordant with good taste, will be the entire production. 

6. Unity and congruity of parts are probably among the 
easiest things to attend to, yet the most seldom attained. 
Curved walks along the front of a house, — figures, vases, 
and other architectural ornaments in a different style to that 
of the principal building, — straight walks passing off ob- 
liquely from other straight ones, or even curved lines issuing 
from or crossing straight ones at an oblique angle, — a mix- 
ture of general styles of treatment, — ■ gay roses or honey- 
suckles twining around funereal pillars or urns, — the most 
somber-looking plants placed against a building in a florid 
style of architecture, — the commonest greenhouses tacked on 
to structures of some pretension as to correctness and purity 
of manner, — these, and a variety of similar incongruities, 
are most abundant and conspicuous in gardens. 

Taste, on the other hand, demands that there should be a 
perfect harmony between the various portions of a garden 
both with respect to each other and to its buildings. Every 
structure ought to have its appropriate garden fittings, to 
impart or preserve to it its proper expression. The part just 
around a house should be treated somewhat architecturally 
or formally, and the transitions from this to the more distant 
portions of a garden, and from these again to the field, and so 
on to the surrounding country, be gradual and almost imper- 
ceptible. And where any sort of rusticity or picturesqueness 
is wished for, or some other feature essentially distinct from 
those which characterize the garden generally, such pieces 
ought to be separated from the rest by a well-marked though 
inartificial division, so that the two are not seen together. 

Connection and order are the universal laws of nature, and 



52 Landscape Gardening 

can seldom be safely infringed by art. Contrast, it is true, 
may sometimes be admitted into a garden, and will occa- 
sionally be very effective, but it is available chiefly in small 
matters of detail, such as the colors of leaves and flowers, 
the habits of plants, their heights, etc. Harmony in other 
things is of far more consequence. It is the only true foun- 
dation of greatness or excellence. To have several notable 
characteristics, or to perform many things well, falls to the 
lot of very few individuals ; and a garden that affects to have 
more than one marked expression or tone, is too frequently 
a failure. Unity, however, and a well-balanced and well- 
blended adjustment of parts, impart to it a weight of charac- 
ter and a dignity of aspect which are sure, in the end, to win 
for it esteem. That which is really good ancf tasteful, while 
it is certain to obtain the approbation of those capable of 
judging it, will quite as surely at some period, however remote, 
secure the suffrages of the multitude. An inferior object, on 
the contrary, may please for a time, but will speedily grow 
distasteful. It is only for true beauty that a lasting and 
general relish is excited. 

7. Blending. — Isolation of parts and ornaments is the 
converse of connection, and would be quite alien to all beauty. 
Garden decorations mostly require supporting. Nakedness is 
commonly repulsive to right feeling in art, drapery, furniture, 
and accompaniments being demanded. The bare outline of 
a plantation, or a solitary specimen or group, will appear 
harsh and out of joint. Openings or glades, that are per- 
fectly simple or unfurnished, also present a certain hardness 
and severance of parts. They look like mere gaps. It is in 
the artistic distribution of plants and groups, so as to do 
away with continuity of lines, and blend perceptibly each 
individual object with all the rest, that the highest power of a 
garden or other scene will reside. 



General Principles 53 

8. Symmetry. — That a palpable attention to symmetry 
should distinguish gardens laid out in a formal manner, no 
one will dispute. The ridicule conveyed in the well-known 
couplet, — 

" Grove nods at grove, each alley has a brother, 
And half the platform just reflects the other; " — ■ 

is, though widely circulated, and often revived, by no means 
to be admitted as the test of truth. Such gardens would be 
nothing unless the nicest balance was preserved. Symmetry 
and regularity are their very essence, as well as that of archi- 
tecture, on which they are founded; for in good models of the 
most irregular buildings, the truest adjustment of parts is 
strictly observed. There should also be a beautiful balance 
maintained, however subtile and disguised it may be, in the 
proportions of every garden, whatever be its style. Not that 
the same description of objects placed in similar positions 
should be found on the opposite sides of gardens, but that 
their general effect should be that one side is, as a whole, 
about equal to the other in height and breadth; or, at least, 
that such an impression should remain on the mind of any 
one glancing over the two. 

9. Gradation, or the agreeable transition of one part of a 
garden into the other, without any decided breaks, or marked 
interference with harmony, should always be striven after, as 
it will enable the designer to use parts of different styles and 
a variety of ornaments, and yet preserve enough of consis- 
tency and smoothness. But the gradation to which I would 
most directly advert is that which treats the different parts 
of a place as so many ascending steps, until the highest and 
best points are reached. As in a house the exterior should 
be but little decorated, the vestibule or porch plain, the hall 
only a trifle more ornate, and the various rooms more and 



54 Landscape Gardening 

more enriched, till the saloon or drawing-room, which is the 
most showy of all, is arrived at, so, in the outdoor domain, 
the exterior look, while unexceptionable, should be quiet and 
by no means attractive, the approach private and not adorned 
with flowers, the pleasure garden a little more enriched, and 
the front of the house, with its lawn and flower-beds or flower 
garden, be in the very highest style of art and beauty. It 
may, perhaps, be impossible to develop this system of arrange- 
ment fully, in consequence of the shape, size, or peculiar 
accessibility of the land, or from other local considerations. 
But the more thoroughly it is inwoven into the plan of the 
place, the more perfect and pleasurable will that place be 
made. 

Where the best parts of a garden are open to every one 
who approaches from the outside road to the house, there is 
not merely no privacy, but nothing to mark any distinction 
between the treatment of friends and casual callers. All the 
delight of showing the former round the garden, and reveal- 
ing its more sacred and elaborate features, is completely sacri- 
ficed if they can see them before reaching the house. In this 
respect, a garden should be a sort of practical climax. 

10. Apparent Extent. — A great deal of ingenuity is often 
demanded to give apparent extent to a place that is, in fact, 
extremely small. There are several ways of contributing to 
the attainment of this. Attention to some of the points 
already discussed will partly accomplish it. If a garden be 
simple in its plan, there will be a good deal of open space in it, 
and a dash of intricacy will rather heighten than diminish 
such an effect. Harmony of parts will further maintain the 
idea of size, for, where everything is linked together to form 
a united whole, there will be none of that distractedness of 
attention and division of interest which tend to make a 
small place appear still smaller. Repose is indispensable to 



General Principles 55 



the production of an appearance of extent in a narrow com- 
pass, and unless everything conspires to maintain the idea, 
no attempt to awaken it will be successful. 

Breadth of lawn must be fully attained before any notion 
of extent can be conveyed. A garden will always look meager 
without a good open lawn. One broad glade of grass should, 
therefore, stretch from the best windows of the house to 
within a short distance of the boundary, with as little inter- 
ruption from walks as possible. The plants and groups may 
be ranged irregularly on either side of this opening, and, 
where the space will permit, there may be smaller glades 
through and among these at varied intervals. If such a 
broad glade of greensward can be had on two or even three 
sides of the house, the effect of size will be still more fully 
realized. 

The openness here advocated must not on any account be 
converted into plainness. There is no more common error 
than to suppose that a place which has simple borders along 
two or three of its sides, and the enclosed area entirely un- 
furnished, presents the best possible representation of size. 
Because a very small space, such as a room, will appear larger 
for being nearly or quite empty, it must not be assumed that 
a garden is to be judged similarly On the contrary, a 
simple area, which is taken in by the eye at one glance, invites 
attention to the sharpness of its boundaries. That which 
requires no mental effort to understand and embrace will 
never seem extensive unless of gigantic proportions. The 
notion of size is not to be realized, within straitened limits, 
by mere simplicity. It is indefiniteness alone, — the giving 
the eye a number of points to rest upon, and recesses to 
explore, and the imagination a field for its active exercise, — 
that can produce the required result. What we measure 
piece by piece, through a lengthened process, will always be 



56 Landscape Gardening 

considered larger than that which strikes upon the vision 
at once, in all its proportions. 

Where there is an opportunity of connecting a lawn with 
the field or park by means of a sunk fence, and keeping the 
park closely fed down, so as always pretty nearly to resemble 
the lawn, the place will be much enlarged in appearance. 
Even the existence of a wire fence to separate the two, instead 
of a sunk wall, will not very materially lessen the result sought 
to be produced by this union of parts. But the edge of the 
lawn and that of the outlying park ought to be about on the 
same level, for if the earth be raised on the top of the sunk 
wall, or on the upper edge of the slope from the bottom of the 
wall into the park, the eye will be prevented from traveling 
smoothly and continuously across the two surfaces, the divi- 
sion line will be more or less harsh, and some of the actual 
space will be concealed by the raised bank or darkened by its 
shadow. 

To make an open glade of lawn appear still larger than it is, 
the expedient of turfing closely around the plants and masses 
along its margin may be adopted. It has previously been 
stated that an object of one color, and that a green one, ac- 
quires a striking apparent augmentation of size. And if the 
plants that flank an open lawn are principally evergreens, 
and their branches sweep the grass, without any soil being 
visible, the space is thereby very much expanded in appear- 
ance. 

What has just been said as to the effect of a single and 
uniform color in giving breadth of effect, will apply moreover 
to the injunction now added that all walks should, as far as is 
practicable, be concealed from the house. This can be done 
in great measure by using plants of very various heights, 
whether in groups or as specimens, and, more rarely, by rais- 
ing the grounds lightly towards the walk and then dropping 



General Principles $y 

it rather suddenly within a few inches of its edge. The 
mode of effecting this may be seen in fig. 10, which is a section 
of a lawn falling away from the house, and crossed by a 
sunk walk, the dotted line over the latter showing what the 
level would be if the walk were not there or not depressed. 
Where plants would be out of place on account of breaking 
up a glade, or spoiling a vista, or intruding upon a recess, 
this raising of the ground for some distance to a uniform 
height, or giving it a very gentle undulation to cover a walk, 
may be successfully adopted. It should be recollected, how- 
ever, that, as before hinted, any portion of a lawn that is 
raised takes off several inches or feet from the view of the 



Fig. 10. Method of Grading for Walks. 

part behind. And this consideration should suffice to keep 
such banks down to the lowest level consistent with the ful- 
fillment of their design. 

At any point in which there is a great change in the line 
of a walk, or other walks branch from it, there is a special 
necessity for having a mass of shrubs or some other opaque 
medium to shut out such abrupt transitions from the house 
and the rest of the grounds. Sudden turns or breaks should, 
if necessary at all, be accomplished quietly and privately, 
being at least screened from notice until they are actually 
reached. Besides, the point from which a branch walk 
diverges requires concealing for the additional reason that 
the eye might otherwise travel from the house or lawn some 
distance along this branch line, and a walk that can be thus 



58 Landscape Gardening 

seen lengthwise is more conspicuous and offensive than one 
of which only a cross view is obtained. 

Another motive for keeping walks retired and out of sight 
which may here be mentioned, though it does not so much 
affect the question of extent, is that they may be more private 
and shaded, less liable to be overlooked, more cool and 
refreshing in summer, and warmer and more sheltered in 
winter. By passing along them, too, when they are thus 
secluded, the various views of the place which occur at the 
many openings that may be left give, by reason of their 
number and diversity, a more exalted impression of size. 
When persons walk in their gardens, and choose the paths 
for the purpose, they will usually desire to be to a certain 
extent unseen, so that their motions and occupation may not 
be the subject of observation or comment. 

One of the best methods of adding to the apparent limits 
of a place is to get rid of anything like obvious or glaring 
boundary lines. This can be done by planting, throwing up 
mounds of earth, the use of very light and low fences, sunken 
walls, the treatment of a low wall as an architectural feature, 
the covering of a dwarf rough wall with ivy, and letting this 
straggle out from it wildly and irregularly, by broken thickets 
of common shrubbery, or by a mixture of several of these 
things. The worst and ugliest species of fence, where it is 
much seen, is a plain wall, especially if it be high, a close 
wooden paling, unless it be quite a rough one, of split oak, or 
a hedge that is kept regularly clipped. All these present a 
formality, hardness, and liny character, which are continually 
making themselves conspicuous, and there is no losing the 
consciousness of a near and disagreeable boundary when it is 
composed of such materials. 

It should be observed that, as few places offer facilities for 
getting rid of the boundary line entirely at all points without 



&•• 




General Principles 59 

a regular enclosure of plantation, there is little objection to its 
appearing occasionally, provided it does not stand forth too 
prominently or present any positively bad features. The 
chief point is to keep any length of it from exhibiting itself, 
and to procure, in the spaces that come between such exposed 
portions of it, sufficient connection with what is beyond to 
dismisi all semblance of a continuous boundary fence in that 
direction. 

The subject of the concealment of the fences of a place 
is one of considerable moment, and will be more definitely 
and practically treated on a future page. At present, the 
enforcement of principles only is sought. 

Still further to carry out and complete the idea of extending 
the limits of a garden, good and beautiful scenery or objects 
outside the place should be brought as much and as conspicu- 
ously as possible into view, and all vulgar, deformed, or 
disagreeable things, or such as do not appear to belong to the 
property or to be fitting adjuncts, be thoroughly excluded. 
In the latter class, common houses or cottages, outbuildings, 
neighbors' residences which are very near or staring, high 
or ugly fences on an adjoining property, public buildings 
that are not in good taste, agreeable, or striking, will fur- 
nish a few illustrations. They are to be shut out in various 
ways, according to their height, position with respect to the 
best front of the house, and nearness. For hiding large 
buildings, one or two leading points of observation may be 
selected, of which the drawing-room windows of the house 
should invariably be the principal, and the object to be 
gained should be attempted in relation to these. It is 
hopeless to seek to darken one or more great eye-sores from 
every part of the grounds, for in so doing the most beautiful 
views may be intercepted from the better and more important 
stations. 



60 Landscape Gardening 

One simple rule of perspective should never be forgotten 
in dealing with ugly masses of buildings that are both high 
and near. It is that the nearer we bring to our point of 
vision any object that we wish to interpose between ourselves 
and another object, the larger will be the surface of the latter, 
both as regards breadth and height, that we screen from view. 
A reference to this fact will often enable the operator to 
accomplish a good deal with scanty materials and to do it at 
once. Very large trees, for instance, are not always possessed 
or to be procured, and if planted they may not thrive so well 
as others of a lower growth. The knowledge of the above 




Fig. ii. Practical Perspective. 

truth, however, will render the use of the smaller ones as per- 
fectly and as immediately effectual as the larger would be in 
a more distant position. And in this way a moderate-sized 
evergreen may be made to answer a purpose which a tree of 
great magnitude would scarcely be sufficient for in another 
place. It need hardly be said that evergreens are much more 
suitable for the office, where they can be had large enough, as 
they do the work well at all seasons of the year. It should 
be added, that any extreme application of the rule would 
probably bring the trees employed too close to the house, or 
too much on the lawn, both of which have to be shunned. 
The sketch, fig. 1 1 , inserted here will suffice to convey the 



General Principles 61 



necessary idea of what is intended. The dotted line, taken 
from a window as the point of view, will make it evident that 
a bush is just as useful when sufficiently near as a large tree 
in a more remote position. And it may be mentioned that 
where the ground falls away from the point of vision towards 
an object that is to be shut out, the application of this prin- 
ciple is still more striking. 

Such deformities in a landscape as are somewhat distant, 
and either not actually large, or which, from their remoteness, 
do not appear to cover much space, may at times be appro- 
priately blotted out by a neat greenhouse or summer seat, a 
small temple, or any architectural feature akin to these. In 
connection with a flower garden, too, the same point may be 
compassed by a colonnaded wall, an ornamental or trellised 
covered way, an architecturally treated wall for climbers, or 
a short range of glass houses. But ornaments of this class are 
fitted only for peculiar positions and styles of architecture, to 
which they require skillful adapting. 

There are certain features to be met with in some land- 
scapes, which, though not in themselves inelegant or defi- 
cient in beauty and interest, may have their character and 
effect very much improved by the way in which they are 
made visible from a place. Such are church towers and 
spires, fig. 12, pillars and obelisks, distant and pretty cottages, 
prospect and flag towers, ruins, lighthouses, windmills, and 
many other more commonplace erections, which may yet, 
from their position, their outline, or their historical or local 
associations, be worth directing attention to particularly. 
The most characteristic and effective plan of introducing 
such to view is by openings in the intermediate or boundary 
plantations, which shall create a kind of vista at the end of 
which the object intended to be seen occurs. If the sides of 
such vistas are tastefully and naturally finished off, without 



62 



Land* 



cap( 



Gard 



enin 



g 



any appearance of formality or indication of art, and the 
trees in the outer landscape at all favor, the design, very 
beautiful effects may be produced in this manner out of the 
most ordinary materials. 




Fig. 12. Vista Showing Distant View. 






Broader sweeps of landscape, when the nature of the sur- 
rounding property sanctions their introduction, will of course 
require to be treated differently. It will not do to cut them 
into shreds, or exhibit them in mere patches alone. Never- 
theless, very bold ranges of uninterrupted scenery, however 
fine, are almost incompatible with the confinement of a small 



General Principles 63 

garden. For the very amplitude and grandeur of such scenes 
serve to render the meagerness of the home view all the more 
marked and inconsistent. In addition to which, it may be 
assumed, as a sort of rule, that every landscape, distant or 
otherwise, should have a distinct foreground, and that this 
should be obtained within the home estate and tolerably 
near the principal points of observation. So that to create 
such a foreground it will be needful to separate the prospect 
into two, three, or more divisions. And if this be happily 
executed, omitting merely the tamest portions, and making 
the openings of various widths, with very differently shaped 
plants or groups to compose the framework of the picture, a 
result more consonant with the character of the place, and 
more attractively beautiful though less imposing, will be 
realized than if the whole had been left to its native boldness 
and breadth. 

The treatment of foregrounds may be exemplified however 
imperfectly, in figs. 13 and 14, the former of which represents 
a foreground to a flatfish and quiet landscape, and the other 
to a lake or the sea. In all these cases, the materials of 
which the foreground is composed are natural ones, and are 
treated in the natural manner. Of course, however, different 
kinds of ornamental fences might enter largely into the com- 
position and become characteristic elements of the scene. 

This principle of dividing a large landscape into several 
portions, in relation to a place of narrow limits, by the intro- 
duction of very irregular masses of trees and shrubs along or 
near its front boundary, may be yet further developed and 
applied to cases in which only such smaller scenes can be 
admitted. For the treatment of both would be the same, and 
the effects of each would be alike suitable and desirable. 
Examples will not be unfrequent where snatches of delicious 
scenery can be gleaned with the aid of much contrivance here 



64 



Landscape Gardening 



and there around the best sides of a house, the intervals being 
wholly blocked up with something beyond the owner's ter- 
ritory and control. Only let it be established that these 
glimpses or partial views of outlying beauties are those most 
proper to the accident of having but a small garden, that 
they best accord with its necessary internal arrangements, 
and most forcibly enhance its own apparent size, and so far 




Fig. 13. Treatment of Flat Foreground. 

from such conditions being the subjects of chagrin and vexa- 
tion they will be hailed rather as felicitous and appropriate. 
What a person guided by the highest taste would endeavor 
to effect were there no restrictions and impediments, it can 
surely be no disadvantage to another to be compelled to sub- 
mit to. 

In its fitness for awakening and fixing the attention, the 
separation of a country scene into several minor portions, 



General Principles 65 



instead of exhibiting it all at once, may be a little longer 
dilated upon. There are few natural pictures, except such as 
are very fine and commanding, which do not lose their power 
of attraction in the precise ratio of their breadth. That which 
is gazed upon through a variety of comparatively narrow 
openings, though only just above commonplace, will win 
more notice than if it lay before the observer in its naked 
expanse. And as we pass along behind a screen that is grace- 
fully unfolded, as it were, at intervals, to reveal to us frag- 
ments of landscape, curiosity is excited to catch those points 
hidden by the opaque portions of the screen and an extreme 
diversity of prospect is gained. 

Whether the plantations between different openings, made 
to exhibit a pleasing landscape, be the result of necessity, to 
hide what is objectionable, or of choice, to heighten and 
impart variety to the pictures intermediately displayed, their 
outlines and edges alike require to be most carefully and artis- 
tically treated. Not that this should be artificially done, 
but with such refined and delicate art that it shall appear as 
if nature herself had polished them off. Roundness, and yet 
irregularity, play of outline, an intermixture of evergreen and 
deciduous plants, forest trees, tree-like shrubs, and such as 
are decidedly shrubby, with variety of form and color, should 
be their chief characteristics. 

When any broad sheet of water, such as the sea, a large 
river, or a lake, forms the principal object from the front of a 
house, or from some point in the garden, the value of a good 
irregular woody foreground, fig. 14, will be even more 
apparent. A great glare of water is seldom agreeable to the 
sight, and in some kinds of weather may be most disagree- 
able or melancholy. The passage across it of vessels of all 
sorts likewise becomes far more interesting and delightful 
when it is only to be observed at intervals and is occasionally 



66 



Landscape Gardening 



lost sight of. If water be looked at through a leafy screen, 
it is, moreover, in some degree sobered down thereby. It 
does not dazzle or pain the eye so much. It has all the 
charm of light and shadow. Its own luster and loveliness 





Fig. 14. Treatment of Foreground with Water View. 



are brightened by the contrast. It is a gem with a dark 
setting. 

There may be states of the atmosphere in which a large 
unfurnished expanse of water will be perfectly satisfactory. 
On a rich summer's evening, towards sunset or during twi- 
light, especially after warm showers, water may often be in 



General Principles 67 

the highest degree beautiful without any accompaniment. 
But in general it will either be too glittering or too cold to be 
altogether satisfying without some aid from trees as a fore- 
ground. It is wise, therefore, to provide for common and 
usual enjoyment, and to leave extraordinary pleasures to be 
otherwise obtained. The scene that is most pleasing at all 
seasons of the year will undoubtedly furnish the largest 
amount of gratification, and make a habitation most cheerful. 

11. Richness and Polish. — Nothing imparts a greater air 
of refinement and gentility to a garden than a certain amount 
of richness and polish. The first of these may be attained 
by means of a tasteful selection of plants and flowers, and 
by the sparing use of appropriate architectural decorations. 
Polish is more a matter that relates to the mechanical execu- 
tion of the design. Still, it may be advanced a step higher, 
and applied to the expression as well as the finish. In the 
outlines of figures and beds, in the arrangement of plants, 
and in the shaping of the ground, much may be done to 
create this delicate grace. Everything straggling or ragged, 
all that produces confusion, and as a rule all angularity and 
harshness are completely opposed to it. Extreme smooth- 
ness, easiness of transitions, gracefulness of lines, softness of 
undulation, lightness and elegance of ornament, are some of 
its leading manifestations. 

Both richness and polish will, to a certain extent, be the 
result of keeping, as well as attention to matters of detail in 
the first formation. A place can never possess either, unless 
the taste shown in the design be carried into the minutest 
details of the execution, and be maintained by subsequent 
care and correct feeling. Hard deep edges to the walks and 
borders, slopes or undulations which unite with the general 
level by a convex instead of a concave line, and little irregu- 
larities in the surface of a lawn, are quite incompatible with 



68 Landscape Gardening 

high polish; as extreme thinness of plants in beds, poverty 
and weakness of masses or specimens, large staring patches of 
bare soil visible in the borders or beds skirting a lawn, an 
inferior order of plants in the neighborhood of the house or 
by the sides of the grass glades, and the use of commonplace 
or uncongenial ornaments, are inconsistent with richness. 

12. To conceal the offices and out-buildings belonging to 
a residence is a matter of the most ordinary kind, yet it may 
be very clumsily effected. Planting is in general the most 
effectual means. It should not, however, be carried so close to 
the building as to darken the windows materially or occasion 
dampness. And that this may be attended to without intrud- 
ing too much upon the space of the garden, the arrangement 
of the house must be adjusted accordingly. A good deal, in 
short, will depend upon the architect. Perhaps it is best, 
when the servants' apartments are on the ground floor, to 
keep them wholly on the least important side of the building 
as regards aspect and scenery, and have their windows looking 
for the most part into the house-yard, which can then be 
easily planted out. If treated as an inferior wing to the 
house, they should always recede far enough from the prin- 
cipal elevation to give space for the admission of light and 
air between them and the plantation or whatever else is used 
for screening them. 

13. Variety. — ■ I come now to the consideration of that 
very essential element in the composition of a landscape, — 
variety. This has been happily termed "the spice of life," 
since without it existence has no true relish. And its influ- 
ence in landscape gardening is equally potent, for it gives a 
vivacity, a freshness and a piquancy which nothing else will 
supply. It is the crowning grace that makes even uncouth- 
ness tolerable, and invests beauty with superior attractions. 
Sameness is but another word for feebleness, variety for 



General Principles 69 

power. It is that for which man has a kind of innate and 
insatiable thirst, to which nature is perpetually ministering. 
Whoever saw the sky dappled or tinted in exactly the same 
manner, or a plant or tree developing itself precisely, part 
for part, as another does? No two natural landscapes could 
ever be found alike in all particulars. In stream, and forest, 
and mountain, with all their shades of modification, and 
minuteness of detail, there is a wonderful dearth of near 
resemblances or more than general relations. It is the prov- 
ince of art to consult and to weigh these indications of 
nature and the corresponding tastes in man, and to derive 
lessons from the one and endeavor to gratify the other. 

Variety may be partly obtained in gardens by curved 
walks. If we observe from some elevation the course of a 
small river with its numerous and varied meanderings, or 
follow the devious track of a wild forest path, we shall soon 
be convinced of this. It is the graceful contortion of line 
that at once pleases the eye and stimulates the fancy, — 
carries the observer onward, and continually rewards him 
with fresh beauties. But as neither a small stream nor a 
forest path will be nearly so alluring when a number of their 
convolutions are spread out in one view, as they would be 
were it necessary to pursue their course in order to discover 
each particular turn and pry into its individual charms, so a 
curved walk in which several of the curves are seen at once, ' 
or where they very much resemble each other in sweep, loses 
the chief and most engaging part of its variety. It is of 
prime concern, therefore, that the curves in a walk should be 
varied as much as they can be (fig. 15), and that they should 
not be exposed to each other at any point. The views to be 
caught from the numerous stages in the turns of such a walk 
should embrace every good aspect of the house, the garden 
itself, and the adjoining country. 



7° 



Landscape Gardening 



To prevent the curves in a serpentine walk being visible 
from one another, groups composed pretty liberally of ever- 
greens are most customary. They will of course be prin- 
cipally wanted at or near the hollows of the curves, though 
it would be unwise always to put them just at the extreme 




Fig. 15. Treatment of Curved Walk. 



center, because, in those turns that sweep away from the lawn 
especially, the greatest depth of grassy bay may there be pro- 
cured. Figs. 15 and 16 will assist in explaining this. And 
one merit in the management of such things will be in making 
the position, outline, and character of the groups extremely 
different. 



General Principles 



7 1 



Other modes of shutting out one curve of a walk from 
another are the formation of a swell in the ground ; a group of 
rocks or roots, thrown together rudely, and partially planted 




Fig. 16. Grouping Shrubs along a Walk. 

with low evergreens and alpines; a covered seat or summer- 
house, backed, if needs be, with masses of shrubs; or two or 
three specimen plants, or a tolerably large and spreading 
tree. 

And here the remark naturally oc- ^ 

curs, that variety may be further 
attained by placing single plants and 
groups on a lawn. See fig. 17. In 
doing this, everything like straight- 
ness and formality is specially to be 
discarded. The size and shape of 
the groups, while they are in due 
measure adapted to the lines of the 
walks, can scarcely be too unlike, 
provided the changes in their shape be not extravagantly 
numerous, trifling, or violent. There should be enough 




Fig. 17. Typical Group. 



72 Landscape Gardening 

planting to furnish a lawn, and shut up the walks here and 
there in order to produce freshness, but not so many as to 
encumber and cramp the place. A few good, bold openings 
between them, where the space is small, will be better than a 
great number of petty ones. And all such openings should 
be carried as far as is at all practicable into the surrounding 
or outside border, that the eye may be required to explore 
them and not scan them in a moment. 

In the old-fashioned systems of gardening it is usual to 
place all the dwarf-growing plants at the front of the bed or 
border, and those of greater height behind them, reserving 
the taller and more stately forms for the center or the back. 
A regular slope of branches and foliage is thus occasioned 
which has the most perfectly artificial appearance that can 
be imagined. It is of course utterly subversive of all variety 
and may be likened in form to the sloping roof of a house, 
wherein only convenience is contemplated. In nature, the 
very opposite of all this is observable. Bushes and trees, 
herbs and bushes, blend together in the freest and most indis- 
criminate manner, as in fig. 18. And while the edges of 
natural groups are commonly rounded off with exquisite fin- 
ish, spiry forms sometimes also jut forth from them and 
beget a charming diversity. 

And thus should it be with masses of plants produced by 
art. They should have a roundness of outline, and yet be 
in the strongest sense irregular, the tallest plants being 
brought near the fronts at some of the most prominent parts, 
and interspersed through the groups at various intervals, 
being backed up by those of the next size, and the interspaces 
filled with smaller and medium-sized plants. Ordinarily, the 
boldest swells in the groups should have the boldest plants 
in them, and the smaller projections be furnished with plants 
a size or two lower, while the retiring and narrow parts may 



General Principles 



73 



be made up with low or second-sized shrubs alone. Here and 
there a tree or plant of upright or fastigiate character, such as 
the Lombardy poplar, the arbor-vitae, fig. 19, and the Irish 
yew, will make a very striking break towards the front of 




Fig. 18. Elevation of Group. 



the swells, or even nearer the middle of the mass, if well 
supported with lower plants of another character. 

Single specimens on a lawn ought to be disposed with the 
greatest nicety and care. For the most part they should be 
attached to the groups, fig. 19, by being put at some of their 
salient points, to carry out and soften off the swells in them. 



74 



Landscape Gardening 



The more prominent the projection of a mass, the better will 
it be fitted for receiving one or more specimens as an adjunct 
or extension. By thus adding, in effect, to the bolder points, 
a much greater play of line will be produced. In the open- 
ings between the masses, single plants should be very spar- 
ingly inserted, as they will lessen their size. Still, where an 
opening extends beyond a walk and is not very narrow a speci- 
men plant or two, not exactly in the middle of the opening, 
in the hollow part of the curve of the walk, may often be 




Fig. 19. Group on High Land. 



useful to break the plainness of a bay, and give more occupa- 
tion to the eye and the fancy. 

On lawns of any considerable breadth, one or two small 
groups and a few scattered specimens will sometimes be 
necessary in other parts than at the mere sides (see fig. 20), 
to communicate length as well as breadth and a larger share 
of variety. In arranging these groups and specimens regard 
should be had to several points at which the lawn extends 
most nearly to the margin of the place in order that, by very 
irregular and broken files of plants, the eye may be thrown 
into these furthest recesses and have in the plants on either 



General Principles J 5 

side of the view the means of measuring its full length. A 
lawn that has its glades flanked with something like rows of 
low trees or shrubs will seem considerably larger than it is, 
and will of course present more variety of view. By rows 
and files, however, is not meant literally what the words 
express, but an ingenious disposal of the groups and speci- 
mens so as to have some of the effect which rows would 
produce. 




Fig. 20. Plan of Proper Grouping. 

Should a house be so unfortunately placed as to look 
obliquely upon one of the boundaries of the property, variety 
may be occasioned by drawing lines from the best windows of 
the house, at different distances, in the direction of that 
boundary, fig. 21, and jutting forward the plantation or speci- 
mens along some of these lines into the lawn or field, leaving 
deep irregular bays or recesses between all such projections, 
these bays or openings being marked, in the figure, by arrows 
between dotted lines. Not that the plants should be put in 
rows along a portion of either of these lines, but spotted about 



7 6 



Landscape Gardening 




Fig. 21. Method of Diversifying Views from Residence. 



General Principles 77 

between any two of them in larger or smaller patches. The 
plants at the end of such recesses should likewise be the 
lowest by which the boundary can be hidden, to carry the eye 
as far as possible beyond them. This will tend to mitigate 
the meagerness of the estate on that side and give some degree 
of relief and change in the place of a hard and monotonous 
line of fence or plantation. 

A leading point to keep in mind in the disposal of single 
plants and masses on lawns is, in fine, that they have to form, 
furnish, support, and give extent to a variety of glades, vistas, 
and recesses. From the drawing- or sitting-room windows of 
the house, therefore, this arrangement should be principally 
considered and fully sustained. No specimen should stand 
out in the middle of a glade, or destroy the continuity of a 
vista, or be thrust forward into the sides of a recess. Nor 
should a group be placed otherwise than to create and main- 
tain these various features, or ever fill up, except very par- 
tially, those bays in which a greater length of lawn can be 
obtained. 

The house must always be regarded as the chief point of 
vision in a place, and the best views of the grounds should 
consequently be had from it. The windows of a house are 
most used for looking at a garden, and the points of interest 
can there be inspected more leisurely. For these reasons, 
and because occasional visitors see a garden more from the 
windows of the house, it is a good plan in laying out a garden 
to form a series of lines radiating from one, two, or three 
principal windows of the house, at irregular distances apart, 
towards the outside boundary, and to place the requisite 
specimens and groups of plants solely within certain of the 
triangles thus made, according as they may be wanted, never 
suffering the specimens nearest the house to be so large as 
to cover a greater space at the broad end of the triangle 



yS Landscape Gardening 

than may there be required as a plantation, and disposing 
the whole of them so irregularly, that nothing like lines of 
plants shall ever appear. The practice of such a system 
need in no way interfere with the beauty and variety of the 
lawn as seen from other parts. This may just as easily be 
attained at the same time. Indeed, cross lines from all the 
openings at the sides of a place will be of equal service in the 
formation of subordinate views. This idea is illustrated in 
figure 22. 

By a due admixture of different sorts of plants, variety may 
be additionally realized. The habit and character of trees 
and shrubs exhibit a wonderful amount of variation. Some 
of them, indeed, possess unusually striking characteristics 
and assume a most peculiar garb. But there is something 
of difference in all, and little peculiarities show themselves to 
advantage in a small place. The selection of plants for a 
garden should therefore comprise all the best sorts for which 
there is proper room and a suitable situation. 

In attention to the heights of plants, and the color of 
their leaves and flowers there is much variety to be found. 
Diversity of height is as telling as variety of shape and 
arrangement. And colors are, perhaps, even more expres- 
sive. Certain kinds of trees produce foliage of a delicate 
pale green, or silvery gray, or with a marked variegation. 
Others have a dark, massive, somber look, and are evergreen. 
Such sorts should be particularly sought after, and placed 
where they will exhibit themselves most strikingly, and be 
backed by others that will help to throw out their colors by 
contrast. With flowers, too, the same measures should be 
resorted to. The species may be arranged so that one 
enhances the beauty of the other, and all together make a 
lively and varied whole. The modern practice in America, 
however, tends to a more restrained use of plants with 



General Principles 



79 



< «« 



1"' 



" 




^ v 



£g 



*w^ 





"s* 




Fig. 22. Vistas with Cross- Views. 



80 Landscape Gardening 

striking foliage. The best landscape architects nowadays 
depend more on the subtle blending of closely related tints. 

Objects of a lighter color than that of any mere vegetable 
forms, such as vases, statuary, foun ains, buildings of any 
kind, or pieces o" water will largely contribute to variety. 
Anything lighter than the color of ordinary stone is, however, 
hardly admissible, for the whiteness of plaster figures, inde- 
pendently of their coarseness and commonness, is too little 
in harmony with a garden scene to satisfy a cult vated taste. 
Greenhouses that are painted white on the outside are simi- 
larly incongruous. They should be of the same color as the 
building to which they are attached. 

Water, with its beautiful changes of aspect and complex- 
ion, deserves to be more distinctly mentioned as a source of 
variety. The feathery spray of a fountain or cascade; the 
ripple of a pool as it is agitated by winds or disturbed by 
fish; the reflections of lawn, plant and sky, which are so 
softly mirrored on its glassy surface after a warm rain; the 
murmur and music, and life of a stream; the transparency, 
the glitter, the coolness, almost inseparable from the pos- 
session of water, in any form, are all causes of a well-nigh 
endless variety. And if aquatic plants can be cultivated in 
it, or water-fowl encouraged, its variations and its liveliness 
will be far more conspicuous. 

Like the atmosphere, which it in some measure resembles, 
and with which it is sympathetically affected, water is suscep- 
tible of a wondrous variety of impressions in different states 
of the weather. Taking only its capacity to reflect objects, 
an attentive observer will find that, as a landscape never 
looks precisely the same under different atmospheric condi- 
tions, so a smaller scene is pictured in water alike differently 
as to clearness or dimness, shades of coloring, play of light 
and shadow, distinctness or indefiniteness of lines, and all 



General Principles 8 1 

those nameless little graces which go to make up the inter- 
esting diversity that atmospheric phenomena occasion. At 
morning, midday, twilight, or moonlight, beneath sunshine 
or deep cloudiness, before or after rain, when the weather is 
soft and balmy, or harsh and chill, — at all seasons, in fact^ 
and under all circumstances, except when a wind is stirring, 
water will present, like the atmosphere, a constantly chang- 
ing medium through which a landscape may be examined, i 
A final constituent of variety is undulation of the surface 
of the ground. It is not all places, of course — possibly not 
many of them — that afford scope for the adoption of this. 
And it must be set about with great judgment. Undulating 




Fig. 23. Treatment of Boundary. 

the ground, for the mere sake of doing so, when all the coun- 
try beyond is flat and tame, will only appear peculiar and 
eccentric. There must be a reason for what is done, and if 
there be some correspondence, likewise, with the district out- 
side the garden, it will be still more correct and appropriate. 
In building a house, its ground floor is now generally placed 
several feet above the natural level of the land, and there has 
consequently to be raised around it an artificial bank. Along 
the boundary of a place it is often further desirable to form 
another low bank, fig. 23, if the material can be had, and to 
raise the beds or masses towards the edges of the lawn, that 
the limits of the ground and the line of the walks may be 
more perfectly hidden. Between these banks, then, there 
will be a sort of hollow basin, composing the lawn, and sus- 



82 



Landscape Gardening 



ceptible of some little variation, while the shape of the banks 
themselves, if worked nicely into the level of the lawn, will 
give more or less play of surface. If there be a pool of water, 
a fish pond, or a small lake of varied shape, the sloping of the 
ground down to either of these will supply the means of get- 
ting a little more undulation, and the earth taken out to form 
them may be employed in making increased banks. 

Undulations may exist naturally in a garden or field, and 
these should be scrupulously preserved and rather be added 
to than curtailed. As a rule, the bottom of a hollow should 




Fig. 24. Location of Group on a Knoll. 



never be planted and only portions of its slopes. Planta- 
tions in hollows lessen their depth, not only in proportion to 
the height of the plants placed in them, but because the sur- 
face of a mass of plants is always more or less broken, and a 
dell so filled will appear several inches or even one or two 
feet shallower than if it had a smooth grassy bottom. Plant- 
ing by the margins of streams in hollows is sometimes effec- 
tive, but it should be decidedly irregular, and in clusters or 
groups rather than in large masses. When a hollow or glen 



General Principles 



83 



is so deep or so remote from the house that its bottom is not 
seen, keeping it unplanted will preserve the indefiniteness 
which is one of its finest effects. If the eye cannot fathom 
any such dip in the land, there will be a mysterious charac- 
ter about it which will lead the imagination to paint it much 
deeper than it actually is. And the full knowledge of its 
precise limits will not dissipate the pleasure. Knolls, swells, 
or any trifling elevations may be advantageously selected 
for groups of trees, as, by giving them thus a greater height, 
the depth of the intermediate or surrounding depressions is 




Fig. 25. Treatment of Grades. 

increased. Even an almost imperceptible rise in the ground 
should not be lost for such a purpose where its position hap- 
pens to be suitable. 

The greatest charm about undulations of land lies in their 
softness and freedom. The lines should all melt into each 
other. Angularity, sharpness, or straightness, will be un- 
known in them. In the meeting of two lines (fig. 25a) they 
should seem as if they had been gradually attracted towards 
each other for some distance previously. They ought never 
to unite with apparent reluctance. And however good and 



84 Landscape Gardening 

desirable change of surface may be, beauty must not be sacri- 
ficed to variety. 

The slope of any elevation, therefore, however small, should 
be so prolonged as imperceptibly to merge into the common 
level (fig. 256) and by a concave line of the gentlest possible 
description. For the mere lengthening out of the slope will 
produce ugliness rather than beauty, if some degree of con- 
cavity be not expressly sought. After any ground line once 
begins to reach the middle of its descent, it should then 
almost immediately commence to curve under. 

More positive, because more sudden, variations of surface, 
may be engendered by what is termed picturesqueness. In 
this kind of. scenery, the forms are all rugged, the lines broken, 
the changes abrupt. Rough and tangled tufts of vegetation, 
ground that has in no way been smoothed and leveled, jut- 
ting masses or bold faces of rock, gnarled trunks and tortuous 
branches of trees, and ruined buildings, half mantled with the 
ivy, the wall-flower, the fern, and the pellitory, are illustra- 
tions in point. Little, however, can be done in this way 
with small gardens, which are too near the house — itself an 
object of the highest art — to be capable of being rendered 
picturesque. 

In some retired parts of the garden, rockeries, collections 
of ferns, rocky streams, waterfalls, or other picturesque 
objects, can be easily added in many localities, and will be 
most prolific in all the resources of variety. Rustic arbors 
or seats — broken pillars, old vases or urns, partially covered 
with some rude climber — baskets for flowers, made of rough 
wood, with the bark on, or old trunks of trees, scooped out 
with the necessary hollow in the center, — are a few of the 
more architectural among picturesque decorations. 

14. Contrast is a characteristic which, though rarely 
attainable to any extent in small places, must not be wholly 



General Principles 85 

rejected. It has been shown that it may be effective in 
heightening color, but it merits, as a principle, a little more 
development. It necessarily involves a certain amount of 
suddenness in change, whether as to color, form, or general 
character. Very violent transitions are not to be included in 
the idea, at least not so far as its adoption is here considered 
recommendable. 

If a rule might be ventured in reference to this rather 
difficult matter, it should assume that harmony ought to reign 
paramount, and almost alone, over the general features of a 
place, and that contrast should distinguish its episodes or 
more detached accessories. What is meant is, that a garden, 
as viewed from the house, or from most of its own principal 
points, should consist of parts and objects that have some 
decided agreement with each other, or that the several con- 
stituent parts should blend and interfuse insensibly; while 
peculiarities, whether of treatment or vegetation, can be 
reserved for little side scenes, shut off from the rest, or most 
imperfectly disclosed, until the observer finds himself all at 
once in the midst of them. The full effect of a contrast may 
thus be secured, without any interference with the much more 
important principles of harmony or congruity. 

Still, the occasional admission into a more open landscape 
of things which will produce contrast, is by no means alto- 
gether to be condemned. I remember being frequently 
attracted, and always with the same pleasure, to a beautiful 
specimen of the weeping birch, growing by the side of a noble 
cedar of Lebanon on a lawn. And I have also noticed with 
admiration, in several parts of the country, a kind of com- 
panionship established between beeches and fine old speci- 
mens of the common yew. In both these instances there was 
a marked contrast both of form and color. But the branches 
of the two plants were so nicely interwoven, and their foliage 



86 Landscape Gardening 

so happily mixed together in broader or smaller patches 
towards the junction of the two, that while the strongest con- 
trast was apparent, there was at the same time by the irregu- 
larity with which the outlines of each were intermingled, — 
the masses of light and shade gradually losing themselves in 
each other, — a really gentle and easy transition. 

The illustrations thus referred to appear to teach several 
things. If two trees or plants, or two n: asses of either, hav- 
ing very opposite characters, are sought to be placed side by 
side, for the purpose of contrast, they should be put near 
enough to enable their branches to intermix with one another, 
that the contrast may not be too sudden. In the case of 
two groups of very different plants, such as light-leaved 
deciduous and dark-leaved evergreen varieties, being wished 
to be brought together, a few of each sort should be irregu- 
larly thrown into the adjoining group, to produce the same 
effect as the interwreathing of branches would do with single 
specimens. 

Again, where a contrasted tree or shrub, or group of the 
same, is not desired to be placed so near its opposite neigh- 
bor as to allow the branches to mingle, or the sorts to blend 
at the edges of the mass, some intermediate plant or plants 
of a quiet neutral tint, or some breadth of lawn, in which the 
grass will answer the same end, should be interposed between 
the two to soften away the abruptness of the change. 

The examples further show that the particular expression 
of contrast which is most desirable to be attained, need not 
detract from the general harmony of a place. There is that 
about plants which renders it possible, by letting them grow 
into each other, as has been shown, to put the most strikingly 
different species side by side, without any violent or startling 
effect resulting. If the same thing were done with objects 
having square or regular edges, that were equally dissimilar, 



General Principles 87 

nothing but ugliness and incongruity would follow. The 
pleasing union of two contrasted things is only capable of 
being effected when the parts to be joined have an irregular 
margin and can be imperceptibly and intricately inwoven. 

Certain sorts of plants are much more fitted to produce 
contrast than others. Those with either pinnated leaves, or 
extremely small or pale green or silvery foliage or slender or 
weeping branches may be particularly noted as adapted for 
contrasting with dark and heavy foliaged evergreens. Aca- 
cias, several species of sumach, ailanthus, common ash, 
weeping willow, deciduous cypress, weeping birch, and com- 
mon larch are examples of the first class. Cedars, yews, 
pines, and evergreen oaks are some of the opposite kinds. 
Early and gay-flowering shrubs, or those which have white 
blossoms, show to great advantage when backed by ever- 
greens. An almond supported by two or three pines, a 
few red-flowering currants scattered among rhododendrons, 
syringas flanked by hollies, and rhododendrons in which 
the pale flowers and dark leaves are united, make excellent 
contrasts. 

In colors, the deepest contrast may sometimes be had 
without at all trenching on the laws of harmony. White 
flowers, whether in borders or in beds, where only one color 
is used, will always match well with any shade of red or blue, 
and yet nothing could be a greater contrast. Green will like- 
wise adapt itself to any other color, and perhaps all the 
more appropriately the more it is in contrast with it. Dark 
green is the best contrast and the nicest mixture with white, 
and pale yellow green with dark red or deep blue. Green 
also seems to improve a light stone color; and hence houses 
built of common white stone, as it is called, look best when 
they are reposing on grass; and the pedestals of vases or 
other sculptured figures follow the like rule. 



88 Landscape Gardening 

15. Originality. — Although everything approaching to 
eccentricity has been fully deprecated in a former page, a few 
lines may now be devoted to advocating originality as a 
principle to be aimed at in a garden. The scenes of nature 
are continually sought, because, while they are "ever charm- 
ing," they are likewise "ever new." And a garden should 
be made to combine some little freshness, — something that 
will distinguish it from other gardens. Departure from rule 
is not, it will readily be believed, the kind of originality to be 
desired. It is rather such as results from newness of arrange- 
ment, of combinations, of expression, and character. It is 
rare, indeed, that two places will have the same shape, soil, 
aspect, surface, and accompaniments, and every peculiarity 
that is not really bad should be seized upon, and worked into 
some kind of novelty. 

Originality is antagonistic to all sorts of tameness. Even 
a slight deviation from established laws will often be pref- 
erable to their dull and expressionless embodiment, though 
such a course cannot at all be allowed to be necessary. That 
which is commonplace, — which is the exact counterpart 
of what everybody else has, — never leaves any impression 
upon the observer's mind nor wins him back to a second 
inspection. 

Freshness of aspect may be the result of any one particular 
circumstance or a combination of them. The treatment of 
tfye foreground of a place may produce it, by presenting the 
trees and shrubs brought up nearer to the house than usual 
(but not so as to darken or .make it damp), narrowing the 
lawn very much at that point, and letting it gradually 
expand towards the boundary, so that the house will appear, 
from a distance, to be a species of nest in the midst of a 
plantation, though not actually so. The boundary lines, 
again, may be treated so as to get the greatest possible 



General Principles 89 

freshness of view both within and beyond them, and plants 
of an uncommon kind may be liberally introduced. In some 
districts, certain sorts of trees and shrubs and flowers abound 
and are met with in every place. They seem to have acquired 
a local standing and to be distributed from one neighbor to 
another, and are met with in every place. It will be well, 
therefore, to break through these prescribed limits, and 
select something altogether different. 

By giving a chosen tribe of plants the chief place in a gar- 
den, originality is not unfrequently hit upon. The almost 
total exclusion of deciduous plants will have a very marked 
effect, if the evergreens be well selected, and those which 
bear flowers predominate; otherwise they will be rather dull 
in summer. Azaleas, or roses, or any other very showy class 
of plants, which produce a great blaze of flowers, will, if not 
too exclusively grown, contribute to the same end. 

16. Character. — As the result of a number of principles 
judiciously combined and elaborated, a place should always 
possess some more or less decided expression and tone; and, 
as the character of a garden will usually attach itself in 
great part to the owner or occupier, so that his own dis- 
positions and tastes will be judged of by the kind of feeling 
displayed in his garden, it becomes of consequence that 
this point should be kept continually in view while laying 
it out. 

A garden may be distinguished by its gayety of tone. This 
will be principally produced during summer by a variety of 
showy flowers, by masses of brilliant-flowering shrubs, by 
standard and other roses, by a conspicuous flower garden, 
and by a variety of purely summer decorations. The shrubs 
and low trees will be chiefly flowering ones; green-house 
plants in flower will be freely placed about, or beds of them 
provided, and everything will have an exotic air. In winter 



90 Landscape Gardening 

the same tone will be preserved as far as possible with 
variegated evergreens, shrubs that bear red berries, and other 
flowering or gay-looking evergreens, with an abundance of 
early-blooming bulbs and herbaceous plants, to betoken the 
first approaches of spring. The whole character of the place 
should also be light, open, airy, — not at all crowded, or 
overgrown, or overshadowed. The gravel in the walks should 
have a warm, reddish-yellow tint, and the architectural enrich- 
ments should be lively, and rather florid than otherwise. 

But the expression of a garden may, if required, be that of 
quietness, — a modest, unassuming, medium state, between 
plainness and ostentation. It need not be wanting in beauty 
or refinement. It may be correctly and even elegantly 
arranged and furnished, yet there will be no peculiarity of 
tone on which the eye can fasten. All will be good, but 
nothing extravagant. Flowers will be cherished, though not 
in extraordinary profusion. Every kind of evergreens will 
be unreservedly admitted, but there will be no attempt at 
display, no thrusting forward the evidences of wealth. Taste 
will be shown in concealing all its manifestations, — in the 
little arts, and ingenious contrivances, and kindly cares, 
which embellish gardens, as they do life, without ever reveal- 
ing the machinery of their action, and of which the effect is 
seen and felt in their results rather than their processes, — 
in the whole rather than the details. A quiet-looking garden, 
like a well-educated individual, presents no particular feature 
that can attract special notice, — all is smooth, easy, agree- 
able. And perhaps this quietness of expression is the surest 
index to refinement and taste, though the latter is not incom- 
patible with some amount of luxury and sprightliness. 

Art should be pretty obviously expressed in that part of 
every garden which is in the immediate vicinity of the house, 
and may sometimes retain its prominence throughout the 




Plate VI. Old Fashioned Garden, Burlington, Vermont. 



General Principles 91 

whole place. In the latter case, terraces, straight lines of 
walks, avenues of trees or shrubs, rows of flower-beds, and 
geometrical figures, with all kinds of architectural ornaments 
will prevail. Considerable dignity of character may certainly 
thus be acquired ; and, if well sustained, the expression of art 
will be a very noble one. But there are not many places 
which will bear to be thus treated, and it is less frequently 
suitable for one of small dimensions. It is, moreover, a very 
costly style, and requires the lawns to be on the most perfect 
level, and the grass, beds, and masses to be always in the 
highest preservation. A warm part of the country, where a 
rich landscape surrounds the place, will best warrant its 
adoption. In the near neighborhood of towns, or in a bleak 
and ungenial climate, it will appear too bare and cold. A 
purely town garden, however, may be treated thus with 
excellent effect. Terrace walls, balustrades, flights of steps, 
vases filled with shrubs or flowers, and even statuary, will 
here be most important accessories. 

Certain classes of plants seem peculiarly fitted for a garden 
in which much art is to be displayed. Round-headed stand- 
ards and upright or fastigiate shrubs are singularly appro- 
priate. Rhododendrons, Portugal laurels, roses, and some 
species of cytisus, treated as standards, will make admirable 
lines of plants to flank a square or oblong lawn. Irish yews, 
on the other hand, with several species of juniper, cypress, 
and arbor vitae, fit most beautifully into the corners of 
flower gardens, or points in other plots geometrically ar- 
ranged. 

There is a possibility of such things as poverty and heavi- 
ness constituting the tone of a garden, and every effort should 
be employed to obviate this. A large proportion of somber 
evergreens, a dearth of flowers, or a neglect of finish and 
keeping, may impart a gloomy character, which is particularly 



92 Landscape Gardening 

unhappy. A garden seems naturally intended to communi- 
cate cheerfulness and pleasure, and this design should never 
be frustrated by making it look like a cemetery. A great 
many large trees would, by their shadow, and the destruction 
of the grass beneath them, conduce to the same fault, and 
lumpish masses of trees with few breaks, little variety of 
outline and a scanty addition of detached specimens, would 
deepen the impression. Only massive and inelegant orna- 
ments will then be wanted to complete its wretchedness. 

Poverty of expression is almost worse than heaviness. It 
conveys the idea of meanness, inattention, indifference, — ■ 
hardness and narrowness of mind in the possessor, and cold- 
ness of heart. Some gardens are thus poor in design, others 
in their details, and many in regard to their furniture. The 
first may exhibit a deficiency of thought and taste in adapta- 
tion, everything being dashed off or jumbled together as 
convenience or ease might dictate. The second class will 
denote the absence of taste in execution, and of care to put 
the finishing strokes to everything. The third section indi- 
cates a meagerness of materials, — the commonest descrip- 
tion of plants, and a scanty supply of them. The defect of 
the first will be paucity of invention; of the second, insuffi- 
cient application; and of the third, dearth of means. Each 
may exist separately, or all be found together. They are 
capable of easy remedy; though the last, if it arise from 
pecuniary causes, must be either endured, or the materials be 
so selected in respect to their rapidity of growth and showi- 
ness, and so artfully disposed, as to be made the best of. 
Where shrubs or plants enough cannot be had to furnish a 
place fully, it is better to put them sufficiently thick in smaller 
masses than to scatter them over a larger space in which 
there will be. much bare earth visible. 

Instances in which an aspect of poorness arises from the 



General Principles 93 

soil or the climate being uncongenial can be rectified by 
improving the one and using such plants only as will thrive 
in the other. Experience and attentive observation of what 
succeeds in the neighborhood will supply the requisite infor- 
mation as to climate. Hereafter, however, a few guiding 
suggestions will be given with reference to both climate and 
soil. Poverty in the aspect of a country may be greatly 
relieved and atoned for by an extra amount of furniture 
within a place and by restricting the views from it. A 
barren and unsightly waste, common, or moor can be made 
to subserve the purposes of art, if only glimpses of it be 
here and there afforded through masses of rich foliage; for, 
with such a foreground, its extreme poverty will be neutral- 
ized and become a foil to set off the richness and cultivation 
inside the place. 

17. Styles of Gardening. — No garden should be alto- 
gether destitute of manner and style, however feebly or 
indistinctly they may be expressed. Purity and correctness 
of feeling in regard to any given style are the most important 
things to be sought after, for it is barely possible to give rules 
which shall embrace every variety of detail. In little matters, 
indeed, the properties of different styles may be associated, 
under special circumstances, without any breach of rule; a 
right appreciation of the spirit of each alone being wanted 
to enable any one to adapt parts of the others thereto. A 
close analysis will show that some features are common to 
two styles, or even to all of them, the great distinctions con- 
sisting in larger characteristics. 

There are three principal styles recognized in landscape 
gardening, — the formal, geometrical or Italian style; the 
natural or English style, and the picturesque. Of each of 
these I shall offer a brief explanation in the succeeding 
chapter. 



94 Landscape Gardening 

18. Adaptation. — Notwithstanding all the rules hitherto 
furnished, there is a principle yet to be considered, which can 
alone give them their proper weight, and ensure their being 
of any real use, and that is — adaptation. In every place 
that can be met with, or conceived of, there are always 
peculiarities which should influence the disposal of the various 
parts, and give their cast and coloring to the whole design. 
And it is in the adaptation of particular styles, rules, or 
modes of treatment to the circumstances or objects actually 
existing, that the credit of the landscape gardener and the 
satisfaction of the owner can alone be attained. 

Very seldom will it be found that a garden is without some- 
thing or other that may be regarded as a fixture. Buildings 
and the position of their entrances and windows, trees, swells 
or variations in the surface of the ground, external gates or 
entrances, fences, and numberless other things may be 
already on the ground, and it may not be desirable to remove 
them. The scenery of the outlying country will ordinarily, 
likewise, be beyond the reach of the designer. It will be 
needful then to fit in every part of the plan to what is really 
on the ground and must be retained there, not neglecting to 
take advantage of everything that can be made' to give 
greater effect, or to keep out of sight such objects as may be 
considered deformities. Dealing cleverly with difficulties, so 
as to leave no evidence that they have had to be encountered, 
is not the least or the lowest merit of landscape art ; and, as I 
have frequently heard remarked, it is out of awkward and 
apparently intractable irregularities that a competent designer 
may generally create the most characteristic and remarkable 
beauties. 

While deliberating on this subject, the shape of the ground, 
its aspect, the nature of its surface, the wants and tastes of 
the family, the character of the neighborhood and the prob- 



General Principles 95 

abilities as to what it may become, or what might be done 
by adjoining owners, will all pass under review. Nor will 
the nature of the local climate, and the necessities that spring 
out of that consideration, be forgotten. Particular climates 
may require more shelter, and a limited selection of plants; 
certain neighborhoods may demand extra security from 
theft or other injury; in many localities, such as the nearer 
suburbs of large towns, plants that endure smoke will be 
wanted, and the whiter kinds of architectural ornament must 
be omitted as liable to get too much stained and blackened; 
one family may prefer sunshine, openness, and display, 
another shade, privacy, and quiet enjoyment. 

Great natural features abounding in the neighborhood of 
a place, especially within view of its windows, ought seldom 
to be multiplied within it. If the sea or a large river, for 
instance, be visible from the house, it will seem ridiculous to 
have an artificial pool of water for ornament in the garden or 
park. In the same manner, should the district be a rocky 
one, and good specimens of rocky scenery be within sight of 
the garden, there will be equal weakness in forming an arti- 
ficial rockery within the place. The mind will be continually 
instituting comparisons between the feebleness of art's crea- 
tions, however well arranged, and the nobler forms of nature, 
thus brought into immediate conjunction, and the result 
must inevitably be to the disparagement of the former. 

Thrown in a tract of country where a sylvan character is the 
reigning one, an exception in the treatment of a garden to the 
rule just given may very likely be prudent. Here it will be 
the aim to blend the garden as much as possible with the outer 
district, so as to make them appear one property, only giving 
to the garden the warmth of evergreens, and the cultivation 
which rarer plants will express, as a foreground to the larger 
scene. It is a very great point to adapt the garden so to the 



96 Landscape Gardening 

surrounding scenery that there is no break to its apparent 
continuity. 

Perhaps a small garden in the outskirts of a town should 
have more flowering plants and flowers cultivated in it than 
would be wanted in the country, as flowers are much valued 
and produce a more delightful contrast in such situations. 
It is very doubtful, however, how far training climbers to 
town houses, in the cottage or village style, is accordant with 
good taste, especially as they seldom look healthy or flower 
freely. Consistently with a good supply of flowering plants, 
moreover, a town garden cannot well have too many ever- 
greens, for they produce liveliness and verdure at a season 
of the year when, in towns, the most leaden dullness often 
reigns in the atmosphere. 

19. Fitness is a variety of adaptation that has little claim 
to be regarded by itself, and yet it will suggest another 
thought. A thing may or may not exhibit fitness for accom- 
plishing its intention. It may be unhappily conceived, or 
carelessly executed. There might be a deficiency of right 
feeling displayed in it. The expression of a place might be 
unfitted to the character and habits of its owner. Its style 
may be too ambitious for its keeping. Certain plants in it 
may be out of tone. On the other hand, there may be an 
appropriateness in everything, even the minutest. The very 
turf may, by its fineness, freshness, smoothness, and free- 
dom from coarse weeds, denote the proprietor's attachment 
to his garden and elegance of taste, while larger matters will 
always be in the right place and of suitable class. 

20. Appropriation is an idea to be realized in gardening on 
a small scale, which, though already more than once glanced 
at, calls for a separate elucidation. It is that appearance of 
possessing property which, though it may be continually 
belied by one's own consciousness, is productive of almost as 



General Principles 97 

much pleasure to the eye, at least, as though it were really 
owned. Everyday experience will confirm the familiarity of 
the remark, that some individuals glean more delight from 
the opportunity of inspecting another person's property than 
the owners themselves. Proprietors of extensive and beauti- 
ful estates rarely appreciate them. Men generally value less 
what they hold by no uncertain tenure. The things which 
we retain on sufferance, or which we may some day be 
deprived of, are those which, if we are not overburdened with 
them, we most earnestly cling to and perseveringly admire. 
This tendency is neither illegitimate nor pernicious, in refer- 
ence to natural objects, while it may entail much innocent 
gratification. 

To cater to an appetite so unexceptionable is surely not 
beneath the dignity of art. And as it can be done without 
any great difficulty where the frontage of a place is towards 
an open country, it should always be taken among the estab- 
lished requirements. The ways of accomplishing it have 
before been enumerated. But it may be observed that a 
boundary fence which looks most like that which would 
form the division between one part of an estate and another, 
with such groups of trees and shrubs between the openings 
as would be placed to give a foreground to the distant view, 
even were there no separating fence behind them, will most 
favor the illusion and enable the occupier to appropriate as 
if it were his own, all that is beautiful in the general land- 
scape. Even fences, sheds, cottages, etc., on the property 
thus surveyed, may often be got rid of by a few specimen 
plants, placed so as to cover or to diminish such divisions 
in it as would detract from the semblance of expanse and 
ownership. 

21. Imitation of Nature. — Readers who have traveled 
with me thus far will have perceived that I have had occasion 



98 Landscape Gardening 

more than once to refer to nature as the great school of land- 
scape gardening. It may be worth while, then, specifically 
to inquire how far the imitation of nature is possible and 
right. I profess not to be of those who would carry the 
principle very far, or into minor matters. It is in her broader 
teachings and general promptings that materials should be 
gathered for practical use. And these, be it remembered, 
will be solely available in idealizing and exalting art. 

To regard a garden otherwise than as a work of art would 
tend to a radical perversion of its nature. It is and must 
remain that which its proximity to the house alone enables it 
to be. No ingenuity can convert it into a forest glade or a 
glen. Nor is such a transformation to be wished for, were it 
possible, any more than that a dwelling should be transmuted 
into a hut, a den, or a cave. A garden is for comfort, con- 
venience, luxury, and use, as well as for making a beautiful 
picture. It is to express civilization, care, design, .and refine- 
ment. It is for the growth of choice flowers and the preser- 
vation and culture of exotic trees and shrubs, with novel and 
interesting and curious habits, which could not be reared 
without the most assiduous guardianship and attention. In 
these respects it is fundamentally different from all natural 
scenes. 

Reflections such as these will make it plain that they who 
would imitate nature in gardens must do so in another way 
than by copying her piecemeal. They ought, indeed, to be 
imitators, but not copyists, transcribing her spirit and not her 
individual expressions, — - her general countenance or aspect, 
and not her particular features. An artist, be he a painter 
or a landscape gardener, or an amateur in either branch, 
should go to nature to study principles, gathering up snatches 
of scenery and storing them in his memory or his portfolio 
for future adaptation and use. He should note all that 



General Principles 99 

pleases him and endeavor to understand how and why it 
influences his mind. By thus filling his brain with number- 
less beautiful little pictures or images, and his intellect with 
the foundations and sources of pleasure in his art, he will 
come from nature doubly primed to give practical utterance 
to his imaginings, and prepared to embody in a composition 
the finer touches and more artistic and spiritual elements 
which he has collected from such a variety of sources. It is 
in this way that the imitation of nature will be but the ennob- 
ling of art, — -the airy elegance and flying graces of the one being 
engrafted on the more substantial characteristics of the other. 

22. Beauty. — That beauty should be the ultimate aim 
of every operation in landscape gardening, may seem so self- 
evident a proposition as almost to excite a smile. It is one, 
however, which I must not fail to enforce. There may be 
different opinions as to what constitutes beauty, and of what 
ingredients it is made up, some affirming that its chief ele- 
ments are those of form, and others that it consists solely in 
association. I shall assume that it is to be found in both. 

Most persons will be agreed, in the main, as to what is really 
beautiful, though almost every one will have some kinds of 
favoritism and prejudice. Considering the multitudinous 
forms of vegetable life and the fact that all are endowed with 
more or less attractiveness, I have often been struck with the 
narrowness of affection for plants which is commonly pos- 
sessed, many people having a few favorite trees or shrubs 
and proscribing nearly all others. I have been told of a cele- 
brated landscape gardener who always kept the nurserymen's 
stock of two or three particular trees at the lowest ebb, and 
could never get enough. And it is matter of gardening his- 
tory, what thousands — probably millions — of his famous 
"locust-trees" Cobbett spread abroad throughout the coun- 
try, — although it is now well understood that, for all prac- 



ioo Landscape Gardening 

tical uses, the tree, even if it would yield any available timber, 
is very nearly if not altogether worthless. 

But I cannot and do not profess to comprehend why 
gentlemen should impoverish their plantations, and strip 
their gardens of the first element of beauty, by cultivating 
only a few particular species of plants, and not merely har- 
boring, but cherishing a dislike to all others. A garden or 
plantation denuded of half or three-fourths of its proper 
ornaments, is much in the same predicament as an individual 
with only a portion of his ordinary garments. It is imper- 
fectly clothed, insufficiently furnished, weak in its expression 
of the beautiful. 

Beauty of lines and forms is possibly less powerful than 
that of association, but it is more prevalent, and better 
apprehended by the mass. A wavy, or undulating line, has 
been styled the line of beauty, and the assumption may be 
true that it is the most beautiful of all lines. But in 
averring that there is no other line at all beautiful, it is of 
course far wide of the truth. Every one will acknowledge 
that the lines of a dove's body, when in full plumage, are 
exquisitely beautiful, and that a circle is one of the most 
pleasing of figures. But few, I should think, will deny that 
a cube possesses beauty, or that a triangle is not destitute 
of it. An avenue is the subject of universal admiration, and 
so is a long straight road, that conducts up a gentle ascent, 
to a church, or other sufficiently dignified and commanding 
object. Still, an avenue to a common workhouse, as I have 
witnessed, loses its influence; and a long road, ending in 
nothing, may simply be a dreary blank. 

The truth seems to be that some kinds of lines require the 
accompaniments of fitness and association to render them 
interesting, while others have an inherent power of impressing 
men. A wavy line is the most truly graceful; it is the thing 



General Principles 101 

that imparts beauty of form to human beings and animals; it 
is indefinite, and awakens the idea of infinity, with its exhaust- 
less stores for the imagination; and it is of the commonest 
occurrence in natural scenery. Hence, it may fairly be 
invested with the palm. 

Beauty of form, in a work of art, is of a superior order to 
beauty of color or embellishment. It betokens a deeper 
acquaintance with principles, a higher refinement, a finer- 
toned feeling. Colors are mere adventitious aids, and are 
always liable to fade or change, while floridness of ornament 
simply pleases the fancy, but rarely satisfies the mind, and 
soon satiates. Beauty of form is the most enduring. 

The influence of this rule on all the adjuncts of gardening 
cannot be over-rated. It will affect the shape of the ground, 
the direction or curves and levels of the walks, the position 
and outlines of all the clumps and beds, and every sort of 
ornament that can be conceived of. It will be far more 
significant than mere costliness or elaboration or ingenuity. 
And it will extend as much to the proportions of a plate as 
to its individual elements. 

Beauty of tint or tone, though inferior to that of form, is 
what must never be thrown entirely into the shade. Delicate 
colors are intrinsically the most beautiful. Shades of pink, 
or mixtures of pink and white, light blues, pale greens, straw- 
colored yellows, the softest tones of crimson and vermilion, 
are the rrost expressive of beauty. All stronger colors may 
be rich, showy, and valuable in contrast, but they are less 
positively beautiful. None of them need be kept out of a 
place, though the above hints will be suggestive of what is 
most desirable, where the highest beauty is sought, and they 
may denote the colors which should be selected in painting 
either the exterior or the interior of buildings, fences, etc. 

Nor do I seek at all to decry beauty of ornament and 



102 Landscape Gardening 

detail. It will, however, be necessary to keep in mind that 
minuter beauties do not tell in or upon objects that have to 
be viewed from a distance, and that, in architectural forms, 
they are more fitted for internal than exterior decoration. 
A building that has to be entered should always be much 
more ornamented and enriched inside than it is without ; and 
little delicate finishings, though highly expressive when in 
place, ought only to be put where they have to be closely 
examined, and near enough to the eye to be thoroughly scru- 
tinized and appreciated. 

Beauty of association is founded on the suggestion of 
pleasing ideas, such as fitness, harmony, poetry, or the awak- 
ening of images that have formerly delighted. It is especially 
connected with anything aged, — with that in which our 
ancestors or family have borne a part, or in which we have 
personally shared. A tree or plant, which we, our relatives, 
or some known and noted personage has planted, reared, 
or tended; a summer house that is rich in family or other 
ancient records, or in which we or those we love have thought, 
or studied, or felt much; a retired nook or secluded little 
garden, which the fair hands of the departed have, by their 
former ministrations, hallowed and rendered sacred; — these 
may all be abundantly fraught with the beauty of association. 

By this benignant law man is linked at once to the material 
and the spiritual world, and the elements of a garden become 
pregnant with both poetry and history. The chords of the 
human heart are strung responsively to a variety of objects, 
and a sight, or a sound, or a scent, may at any moment 
waken their melody. Delicate perfumes, bursts of nature's 
vernal music, gleams of gladdening sunshine after rain may 
stir the shades of long-buried thoughts and emotions and 
quicken them into new life with a thrilling power. 

Practically the beauty of association is hardly a thing to be 



General Principles 103 

aimed at or cultivated. It is an instinct which twines itseif 
with our being, and makes its own existence known and felt. 
All that tends to excite or develop it may, however, be relig- 
iously fostered, for it is as beneficial as it is pleasurable, 
softening and humanizing the heart, and refining the entire 
nature. And even in the newest places, where not a solitary 
vestige of human feelings or interests is found, every plant, to 
the lover of a garden, may soon acquire a little history of its 
own, and be the source of endless amusement, by personal 
trimming and training, and watering, and protecting; while a 
sentiment can easily be attached to particular spots, by dedi- 
cating them to the various affections, virtues, or purposes 
which adorn or illustrate human life. However unfortunate 
a disposition to allow plants to become overcrowded and spoil 
one another may be, one always augurs well of the heart, at 
least, of the individual who shows a peculiar sensitiveness 
about the removal or destruction of anything he has once 
cherished, and with which are swept away sensations and 
pleasures never to be recalled. 

23. Combination of Elements. — Having thus gone over 
the numerous principles which those who would lay out a 
garden will have to take into account, I have now to indicate 
the manner in which they can all be harmonized and com- 
bined so as to compose a beautiful and consistent whole. 
It may appear to some that many of the points discussed are 
incapable of being conjointly carried out, ■ — that such a thing 
as variety are incompatible with unity and simplicity, and 
that, in observing some of these principles, others must be 
violated. That such is not the case I shall proceed to demon- 
strate. 

Let it not be supposed, then, that any stress is intended to 
be laid on one principle to the depreciation of the rest, or that 
the marked elaboration of either is advocated. The perfec- 



104 Landscape Gardening 

tion of a garden will consist in no one of them being carried 
to an extreme. Each is to be consulted separately, but the 
joint teachings of all acted upon, such as will best suit the 
circumstances and demands of the case being kept para- 
mount. Not that such things as different tones and styles 
are to be sought after in the same place, unless it be a large 
one and susceptible of partial division, but that some kind 
of expression, and one particular manner should be sought, 
and the place not be made devoid of manner or expressionless. 

That simplicity is not altogether at variance with richness, 
however incongruous they may appear, there will be little 
difficulty in proving. A garment may be of the most superb 
material and yet its shape and color be very simple. Dignity 
and even majesty of mien may often be accompanied with an 
air of simplicity which may exalt rather than weaken it. 
And so a garden may be devoid of a single rudiment of com- 
plexity, — be simple in its plan, its purpose, and its orna- 
ments, — but that simplicity shall be so tasteful and so 
noble and sustained with such excellent materials that rich- 
ness will be manifestly consistent with it. 

Nor will unity be a whit the more incapable of being 
attained in conjunction with variety. This last has only to 
be prevented from degenerating into extravagance, — to be 
duly pruned and restrained, — and not a thread of the woof 
of harmony need be broken. It is not any unusual number 
or diversity of instruments and voices that will jar the music 
of a chorus. Such a powerful orchestra will rather swell the 
concord if well regulated and rightly attuned. And variety 
in a garden will alike heighten its harmony, when the multi- 
plication of parts is effected with judgment and forethought. 

Again the blending of parts has been shown in an earlier 
page to be not utterly foreign to contrast, since things of 
opposite characters may be brought together, and even into 



General Principles 105 

contact, by interweaving their parts freely with each other 
or separating them by something of an intermediate tone. 

Utility and convenience might be adjudged alien to matters 
of ornament. But there is no reason why they should be so. 
A useful thing may likewise be an ornamental one. Taste 
and tact will adorn the commonest processes of life, and make 
them in the truest sense beautiful, — sometimes poetical. 
So the useful and the necessary portions of a garden can be 
brightened by art till they will seem intended solely for orna- 
ment, though all the while accomplishing their primary pur- 
pose with the utmost fidelity. 

No breadth of lawn, some may be ready to urge, can be 
procured at the same time with any degree of intricacy. Yet 
nothing is more untrue. It is not a plain bare area, on the 
scale of a moderately large garden, that can give the impres- 
sion of size. It is the indefiniteness which complexity pro- 
duces, — the partial revelations of side glades which the 
imagination is left to amplify and lengthen, — that alone 
impart any adequate notion of extent. Plainness reduces 
the whole to a mere matter of fact, which is measured 
at once. A little innocent deception, by supplying food 
for the fancy, and preventing almost the possibility of esti- 
mating the actual proportions, always operates in favor of 
expansion. 

How, it may be further asked, are privacy and seclusion 
to be gained, without sacrificing all open views into the sur- 
rounding country? Nothing is easier, I reply. If a house 
be on raised ground, as it should be, the planting of thickets 
of low shrubs (principally evergreens) near the boundary, 
where it is liable to be overlooked, at all such openings, will 
produce the desired seclusion, and still allow the eye to range 
over into the district beyond. Such thickets will also give a 
pleasing foreground, and they can be kept sufficiently low, 



106 Landscape Gardening 

if ever inclined to intercept the view, by irregular pruning, 
not clipping with the shears. Should a walk run immediately 
within them, if they are not high enough to cover it perfectly, 
it can readily be kept down a foot or two lower at such parts. 

Originality, perhaps, may not be deemed attainable while 
due regard is paid to the requirements of law. Rules are not, 
however, made to fetter, but merely to guide. A writer of 
fiction is not prohibited from representing character in a 
wonderfully developed and exaggerated manner. He is only 
forbidden from caricaturing it. Developments and extrava- 
gancies that are according to nature are in fact among the 
greatest merits of a work of fiction. They are at once more 
exciting and more elevating. A celebrated artist is repre- 
sented to have replied to a brother of the easel, who was 
contemplating one of his mystic productions, and complain- 
ing that he had seen nothing in nature at all resembling it, 
"True, but don't you wish you could?" 

With respect to all other principles, in which there are no 
apparent repulsions, the means of combining them will be 
too obvious to need describing. They can therefore be dealt 
with or embodied in a place as its peculiar nature or the incli- 
nations of the owner may best warrant. 




■im 



CHAPTER IV 

The Several Styles 

Attached to the geometrical style there is a greater de- 
gree of originality, distinctness, and art, than to either of the 
others. It is the most easily defined, and therefore, prob- 
ably, the least difficult to practice for a person at all familiar 
with the simplest rules of architecture. It treats a garden 
solely and entirely as a work of art. And the forms of nature 
which it impresses into its service are simply those which 
have the closest affinity to its own characteristics and are 
in fact most artificial. 

Doubtless the geometrical style is that which an architect 
would most naturally prefer, for it subordinates everything 
to the house, and is a carrying out of the principles common 
to both itself and architecture. A series of straight lines 
joining one another at right angles, and of beds in which 
some form of a circle or a parallelogram is always apparent 
or which fit into any regular figure, are, as just before 
remarked, the leading and most expressive features of this 
style. Flights of steps, balustraded walls, terrace banks, 
symmetry and correspondence of parts, circles, ovals, oblong 
and angular beds, exotic forms of vegetation, raised plat- 
forms, and sunken panels, are some of the materials with 
which it deals. 

To apply the style now under notice successfully, the 
character of the house and the nature of the surrounding 
land must justify its use, or be brought into accordance with 
it. Grecian, Roman, or Italian forms of architecture are 
those in connection with which it can be most freely adopted. 

107 



108 Landscape Gardening 

A mere terrace, or series of terraces, may accompany a Gothic 
house, and can be attended with a geometrical flower garden 
or with other straight walks. But to produce a whole in 
this manner, one of the three architectural styles I have 
mentioned would form the best foundation work. Hence, 
the practice of the geometrical style has often received the 
title of Italian gardening, it having been most extensively 
adopted in Italy and in relation to the architectural forms 
peculiar to that country. Still, there may be cases in which 
from the particular form of the ground, or the character of 
the outlying district, or from other local circumstances, a 
house in the Elizabethan or any kind of Gothic style may be 
fitly accompanied with a purely regular garden possessing 
all the features of the formal school. 

Commencing at the house, which should always be raised 
three or four feet above the common ground level, this may 
be supported by either a flat grass platform, with a grass 
slope from it to the edge of a walk below, or, what is better, 
the walk may be on the level of the house, and parallel with 
it, and either a sloping grass bank, or a low ornamental wall, 
break the change of level, this bank or wall affording the 
means of obtaining one or more flights of steps. Whichever 
of these plans is pursued, the grass at the edge of the walk, 
whether on the top of the bank or at the bottom of the slope, 
should be quite flat, to the width of at least a foot (more will 
be better), and this rule must not be departed from in any 
similar case. The upper edge of such grass banks ought to 
be square, and by no means rounded off, while the bottom 
of them may be very slightly softened, observing to keep it 
quite equally so for the entire length. Terraces should never 
be so broad as materially to foreshorten the view of the lawn, 
which is a common but decided error. 

If the front of a house has many breaks or projections, 



The Several Styles 109 

the terrace platform must be made so much the broader 
that the upper edge of the bank may take a straight direction, 
instead of being parallel with the house in all its parts. 
Should the center of the house only, however, or one of the 
principal rooms, be thrown forward in a square or partially 
semicircular form, the terrace bank may very properly and 
effectively take the same shape. The flight of steps should 
be put in the center of this projection or omitted altogether. 

A terrace walk at the top of a slope and close to the house 
has the advantage of commanding a good view of the whole 
garden with the symmetry of its arrangements and the 
beauty of its various parts and ornaments. By intruding 
a little on the privacy of the windows, it involves a trifling 
disadvantage, though it will be seen, by experiment, that a 
walk close to the windows occasions less opportunity for 
overlooking than one which is a few yards distant. If the 
nature of the ground will allow, a small flower garden of the 
most formal description may be made on the same level as 
the house, but in limited places it will usually be more 
appropriate below the terrace bank. The remaining parts 
can be filled in as circumstances may direct. Only if the 
garden be not large, a low architectural wall, either with or 
without the addition of vases and urns or relieved simply by 
piers, will be the fittest boundary fence along the front. 

The walks of a formal garden should always be either 
straight or some arc of a circle, the former being the best. 
Their width must be adjusted to the length. A straight 
walk ought, perhaps, to be made broader than a curved one, 
as it will gain in dignity thereby; and, in a geometrical gar- 
den, walks have to be regarded as one of the principal fea- 
tures. Width, however, invariably reduces the appearance 
of length, so that the perfection of art will lie in balancing 
the two, both length and width being abstractly desirable. 



I IO 



Landscape Gardening 



Unless with long walks, the introduction of basins, sundials, 
or other figures into their center where another walk crosses 
them, however effective such things may be in themselves, 
cannot be commended, since they contribute greatly to 
shorten the apparent length by breaking it up into two parts 
and preventing the eye from ranging uninterruptedly along 
it. Still, in very small places, a group of shrubs for the center 
figure may enlarge the garden in appearance by concealing 
the shortness of the straight walk. 

No straight walk should pass off from another in an oblique 
line, or at any but a right angle, as in fig. 26. The oblique 






Fig. 26. Branching of Straight Walk. 

walks common in the old Dutch style, once so prevalent in 
England, were only fit for large places, where they were 
supported by avenues. In small gardens they cut up the 
lawn seriously, and offensively intrude themselves upon the 
vision. Indeed, they are not adapted to the Italian style of 
gardening, which is that chiefly kept in view. 

Every straight walk ought to have an appropriate termi- 
nation, either in the way of an architectural object or an 
evergreen plant that takes a regular and symmetrical shape. 



The Several Styles 1 1 1 

This is essential to preserve the tone of art, to give the walk 
an object or design, and to justify any divergence from it into 
another walk. The ruling and blighting defect of gardens in 
which straight walks occur is that the ends of the walks are 
often left quite open and unfurnished. When they merely 
surround the house, or exist only on one or more of its sides, 
such accompaniments are not of so much consequence, and 
may sometimes be omitted with advantage as well as pro- 
priety. Still, a terrace walk in the front of a house ought 
always to have some stone or other seat, or covered arbor 
or similar architectural finish at its blank end, if it has one. 
Vases, statues, seats, alcoves, temples, urns, sundials, or 
mere ornamental pedestals, or any architectural form that 
has some little elevation above the surface, will give a suffi- 
cient termination to the end of a walk. Of the plants suited 
for the same purpose, rhododendrons are perhaps the best. 
Other plants which will answer are arbor vitaes and retinis- 
poras. Of larger kinds, the hemlock blue spruce or the 
Douglas spruce will be appropriate. All upright and slender 
forms are ill adapted to the object, being too narrow and 
spiry. 

Masses of trees or shrubs should never come up to the end 
of a walk (fig. 27a), where there is room for a single specimen. 
They may now and then be very useful behind a single plant 
or an architectural figure. But the sorts immediately behind 
a specimen should be deciduous, if it is evergreen, and con- 
trast with it both in color and form, to give it more promi- 
nence and relief; while those at the back of a stone-colored 
ornament ought to be evergreens of the darkest hue, for a 
similar reason. 

This must be understood, however, as far from meaning 
that a plantation at the end of a straight walk, even behind 
another object, is necessarily a good thing. An open space 



112 Landscape Gardening 

where the eye can roam on into the field or country, fig. 276, 
will often be much more pleasing, the principal walk, in both 
these examples, having a seat to stop it, and to form the 
cause of divergence. The above hints about such plantations 
are founded on the assumption that these will oftentimes be 
indispensable to cover a boundary fence. When the space 
opposite the end of the walk can be left open behind what- 
ever is placed as a terminating object, care should be taken 
to prevent the eye from being conducted directly to a boun- 
dary wall or fence or hedge in the field, for should the line 
lead on to such a point, it must be stopped by a few trees or 
bushes, or by some mass planting. If the view into the coun- 
try be a matter worth attaining, some low bushes over which 
the eye can travel will be enough to block out the fence, and 
a telescopic sort of peep into the country along a straight 
walk, which is possibly furnished with specimen plants on 
either side so as to narrow the vista, will sometimes be 
exceedingly fine. Whatever is placed at the end of the walk 
under these circumstances, should always be low and easily 
seen over. 

A semicircular end to a straight walk, where it is to have 
an architectural finishing object, fig. 27c, will not be without 
effect in relieving the line and starting it more naturally in 
another direction. The vase or whatever is used will of 
course stand at the apex of the curve, fig. 27c?, on the grass, 
or a semicircular seat, to fit the curved end of the walk, may 
be a still better termination. To justify a change of direction 
in straight walks, and soften the abruptness of turning them 
off at right angles, a vase or something similar may be put 
just in the center, figs. 270 and 27/, where the middles of the 
two walks would cut each other, and the space which such 
an object would abstract from the walk be added to the latter 
all round, so as to produce a sort of small square or circle, of 



The Several Styles 1 1 3 



T~~T 







Fig. 27. Various Treatments of Formal Walks. 



114 Landscape Gardening 

which the vase is the center. The insertion of a group of 
statuary in a similar position with or without an archi- 
tectural canopy, or the introduction of any bold architectural 
object, or of a basin of water, which may take an octagonal 
or any regular form, and have a fountain in it or not at 
pleasure, will present other modes of dealing with a similar 
case. A good shrub might even be substituted for any of 
these, though this would not be so satisfactory, as it would 
require a grass verge round it which ought to be circular, to 
prevent its corners from being destroyed by trampling. 

Another method of ending a straight walk is by turning it 
off to the right and left, by the use of an open summer house, 
a small temple, or an aviary, at the junction of the three 
walks. This structure may be circular or octagonal or of 
any other regular figure, and may have the walk passing 
through or around it. In other cases the terminating object 
may be either a bold stone seat, a covered seat, alcove, a 
vase or group of statuary on a pedestal, or anything of an 
architectural character that does not thrust itself into the 
lateral walks. And though these illustrations by no means 
exhaust the subject, they may help to give additional clear- 
ness and force to the recommendations in the text. 

Angular beds and masses appear at first sight to be abso- 
lutely demanded in a garden where straight fines and archi- 
tectural figures are so general. And this view may hold 
good in the main with relation to the details of a flower 
garden in the close vicinity of the house. But the various 
forms and modifications of the circle are not objectionable in 
architecture, for they constitute its most beautiful features, 
as any one may perceive who will take the trouble to inves- 
tigate the matter. And it is such forms that are peculiarly 
appropriate in architectural gardening, when only the mate- 
rials of nature are dealt with. It may even be questioned 



The Several Styles 1 1 5 

too, where there is a possibility of choice between oblong or 
square figures and such as embrace any variety of the circle, 
whether the latter are not decidedly more characteristic for 
garden decoration. It is pretty certain that they are most 
beautiful, and that vegetable forms, with which they have to 
be associated, almost invariably incline more to roundness 
than angularity. 

At any rate, there can be no doubt that figures cut in 
grass, and standing more or less by themselves or in rows, 
are more elegant, more conveniently filled, and more easily 
preserved, if circular, than such as have angles in them, 
while they are at least as much in harmony with the formal 
style of gardening. For single specimens, therefore, and for 
separate beds or groups, they are clearly to be preferred, 
and being susceptible of considerable variation as regards 
size, much may be done with them. But oval figures or 
oblong shapes with circular ends, or numerous combinations 
of curved lines uniting at an angle, will, if symmetrical, be 
more garden-like than purely angular ones, and will give 
more diversity. The chief requirement is that they should 
be regular, that is, that their several parts should balance 
and correspond. 

That some more definite notion may be communicated of 
the way in which flower beds can be arranged along the sides 
of a walk, a series of examples is now given, commencing 
with the simplest, fig. 28, which is a mere double row of 
plain circular beds, the diameter of which may be from four 
to six feet each and their distance from center to center ten 
to fifteen feet. In this and all the following instances, how- 
ever, the beds will be equally adapted for putting in a single 
row, along only one side of a walk, if the circumstances 
demand such an arrangement. In the other designs the same 
form of bed receives a little diversity by having specimen 



n6 



Landscape Gardening 



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Fig. 28. Various Forms of Flower Beds. 



The Several Styles 1 1 7 



plants in small circles alternating with the flower beds. And 
a good deal of variety, again, might be given to this treat- 
ment by the choice of the plants used for such a purpose. If 
the line of beds form a vista to one of the principal windows 
of the house, and do not run across any important range of 
view, such plants as Irish yews, Irish junipers, standard roses 
and others of similar habits, either alone or alternating with 
those of a distinct character, will be suitable. But when the 
beds take an opposite direction, it is necessary to use only 
dwarf shrubs in them, that they may not intercept or checker 
the view too much. Still, even here, deciduous plants may 
alternate with evergreens, dark-foliaged shrubs with pale 
green or variegated kinds, and variety may be secured in 
these and many similar ways. 

The square beds in fig. 28c introduce us to a fresh type of 
form which, though not so beautiful as the circles, may, in 
certain situations, contribute an important element of charac- 
ter. The lines of their sides, too, correspond with the lines 
of the walk. And in some instances small intermediate circles 
filled with shrubs might, as with the round flower beds, vary 
and heighten the effect without producing any incongruity. 
Further variety is attained in other designs by the adoption 
of oblong beds, about twice the length of their breadth, with 
semicircular ends, and having smaller circular flower beds 
and circles for specimen shrubs placed alternately between 
them. Either of the preceding forms is adapted for asso- 
ciating with any plain and simple style of house, which 
approximates to the Roman or Italian school. 

An advance to a more decided tone of art is made in the 
next design, the pointed ends and diamond-shaped secondary 
beds in which take a character which can only assimilate with 
Gothic architecture. And the same may be said of the fol- 
lowing design which is but a modification of its predecessor, 



1 1 8 Landscape Gardening 



# ) & 



Fig. 29. Other Forms of Flower Beds. 



The Several Styles 1 1 9 

the ends being parts of circles instead of being purely angular. 
It should be noted, however, that this last example is pro- 
duced mainly to point out the way in which variety may be 
achieved, as the extremely acute corners of the beds would 
be difficult both to fill and to keep in their proper shape. In 
the next pattern we have yet another method, the beds 
being severed into two parts by the introduction of small 
circles, for alternate flowers and specimens; and this plan, 
while offering less of continuity than the previous one, admits 
of the employment of a greater number and variegation of 
colors. 

Still further progression in the scale of design is made in 
fig. 29b which has a prominent center to each bed, with 
narrower, pointed ends. These alternate with specimen trees 
or shrubs. In fig. 29c we have still another type form, 
circular beds being connected by a straight portion. An 
additional step in the way of variety is made in fig. 290 
where the ends of the beds are turned to the walk, and a 
more flowing outline occasioned. Very small shrubs are like- 
wise inserted in the circular ends of each alternate bed. And 
if beds of this pattern cannot be much commended, on 
account of the troubled emanded to fill them nicely and to 
keep them correctly cut out, they may yet be useful in making 
a species of scroll-like fringe to a walk, where only one 
description of plant such as verbenas of different colors, is 
intended to be grown in them. In fig. 29^ a strict adherence 
to the line of the walk is maintained in the flower beds, and 
a similar conformity is observed in fig. 2ge, some little play 
of margin being accomplished by the interposition of dwarf 
shrubs at regular intervals. 

It will be obvious that specimens of this character might 
be multiplied to an almost infinite extent,. if any sufficient 
object could be served by their introduction. In those 



120 Landscape Gardening 

already given, however, — and which are intended rather as 
hints than as models, — the reader will probably find enough 
of suggestiveness to render a further installment unnecessary. 

Towards the outside of a formal garden, or in parts suffi- 
ciently separated from the house, or from the view obtained 
at its principal front, there will be little objection to the use 
of masses of plants with a more irregular outline, or speci- 
mens scattered about in the natural style, provided a kind of 
connection be kept up by the help of circular or other regular 
beds in the center or at the corners of such compartments. 
When irregular lines are adopted as a fringe round the 
boundary, they are made as inconspicuous as possible from 
the house, and do not thrust themselves into notice any- 
where, or weaken the effect of the more artistic parts. They 
will not disturb the harmony of the place unless they are 
obtruded. 

One most important requirement in a formal garden is that 
the ground should be quite smooth and level. No undula- 
tions or unevenness of surface can be for a moment allowed. 
Regular and easy slopes or dead levels are as essential as 
straight lines in a house or in the walks. A perfectly flat 
surface is unquestionably the best for the purpose, as the lines 
will appear longer. When a line slopes away from the point 
of view it is to some extent foreshortened. 

If the ground should, by any unfortunate chance, rise as it 
recedes from the house, it may be kept flat to as great a 
width as possible, and then be formed into one or more 
terrace banks (fig. 30), as it "may require; the walks to be 
carried up these banks by flights of steps, and the change of 
level effected by grassy slopes or by low architectural walls. 

When, in addition to a slope from the house downwards, 
or apart from it, the ground also slants naturally in a cross 
direction, this will demand some modification. As far at 



The Several Styles 



121 



least as either of the main fronts of the house is concerned, the 
ground, to the full breadth of those fronts, and of any addi- 
tional terrace bank by which they may be supported, must 
be brought into a perfectly level platform. There should 




Fig. 30. Terrace Treatment of Rising Ground. 

be no cross slopes, — no oblique inclination of the ground in 
a direction parallel with the front of the house. The level 
basement line of the house would in no way accord with a 
diagonal or sloping line in the ground, the latter being sadly 
out of harmony with the squareness of the style. Indeed 
the side of a house out of the perpendicular would be scarcely 
less incorrect. 

From these observations it will appear that where ground 
slopes across a lawn and parallel with the front of the house 
it should, in consistency with the formal style, be reduced 
to a dead level as far as the front of the house or its terrace 
extends. In fig. 31 the dotted line indicates the supposed 
natural level of the ground, and the shaded line the level to 
which it should be reduced. The change of level from this 
point, in a line taken precisely at a right angle from the 
house across the garden, should be effected, whether ground 
rises or descends, by a terrace bank of grass the upper edge 
of which is kept quite square. Or the same thing may be 
accomplished by a low wall, carrying the walks either up or 



122 



Landscape Gardening 



down by flights of steps. The steps resulting from any such 
alteration of levels, will, if rightly treated, and adorned with 
small vases, materially contribute to sustain the general 
character of the place, though they should never be without 





Fig. 31. Grades about a House. 

more or less massive edgings or curbs of stone, or some living 
substitute for these in the way of low dense evergreen hedges. 
Any extreme slope of the ground away from the house can 
be converted into terraces, as suggested for rising ground. 
But many terraces on a descending slope ought not to be 
used unless really necessary, for they serve to lessen the 
apparent size of the place. 

Water, if admitted at all into the geometrical style, takes 
the shape of basins with architectural rims, or fountains, 
or larger pools that have sculptured figures along their mar- 
gins, or very artificial cascades. Regularity of outline will, 
as in other things, be the leading characteristic of all such 
pieces of water. They may be circular or square, oblong, 
oval, hexagonal, octagonal, or of various shapes, as described 
for flower beds and masses. But they must not be irregular. 
Fountains which merely gurgle out the water or throw it up 
only a few inches, in the midst of round or octagonal basins 
having a stone margin, are in the highest degree appropriate 
and classical. And here it is worth while noting that simple 



The Several Styles 123 

figures of this or other kinds in stone, with little or no aid of 
ornament beyond a good shape, will be more esteemed by 
those capable of judging than the most elaborate plaster 
decorations. 

The Natural Style. — Serpentine or wavy lines may be 
regarded as the characteristic features of the natural style. 
Its object is beauty of lines and general variety. Round- 
ness, smoothness, freedom from angularity, and grace, rather 
than dignity or grandeur, are among its numerous indications. 
It does not reject straight lines entirely near the house, or in 
connection with a flower garden, a rosary, or a subordinate 
building as a greenhouse that has a separate piece of garden 
to it. Nor does it refuse to borrow from the picturesque in 
regard to the arrangement and grouping of plants. It is a 
blending of art with nature, — an attempt to interfuse the 
two, or to produce something intermediate between the pure 
state of either, which shall combine the vagaries of the one 
with the regularity of the other, and appropriate the most 
agreeable elements of both. It has all the grace of nature 
without its ruggedness, and the refinement of art apart from 
its stiffness and severity. 

So many of the peculiarities of this style have been inci- 
dentally described, under various heads, that little remains 
to be added on the subject. Intricacy, every species of 
variety, indefiniteness, extension of apparent boundaries, 
polish, and the graceful blending of parts are specially its 
own traits. The liberal use of plants, such as trees and 
shrubs, in large irregular masses, more especially in outlying 
borders, is a distinctive feature of this style. The natural 
style is passed over very lightly in the original authorized 
editions of this work, being commonly spoken of as the 
"mixed" style. The twentieth-century reader in America 
will remember that at the time of the writing of the original 



1 24 Landscape Gardening 

manuscript the natural style had as yet hardly received 
polite recognition. To-day it stands established before the 
world as one of the great expressions of universal art. It 
has been cordially received and acclimatized in America, and 
is, apparently, the style most truly expressive of the taste of 
the American people. It is the style urged so eloquently by 
Andrew Jackson Downing and practiced so successfully by 
Frederick Law Olmsted. It is the usual form of expression 
adopted by leading American landscape architects of the 
present day, of whom Mr. O. C. Simonds and Mr. Warren 
H. Manning may be mentioned as typical exponents. 

The natural style is rather better suited to the treatment 
of large scenery parks and rural estates than to small resi- 
dence grounds. Yet it has been used with reasonable success 
even on small city lots. At its best it depends essentially 
on the development of broad effects in natural scenery where 
fields or woods, river or lake, hills or meadows, play a leading 
role in the picture composition. 

In America the use of native plants has come to be re- 
garded as an almost essential feature of the natural style. 
When other plants are used they are to be naturalized, 
as daffodils and crocuses are naturalized in the grass and 
Canterbury bells and foxgloves are strewn loosely into wild 
gardens. 

The Picturesque Style. — Extreme naturalness is the dis- 
tinctive mark of the picturesque. It repudiates all art, or 
employs it solely in order to weaken or annihilate it. There 
is nothing flowing in its lines, or soft in its forms. As 
extremes are said to meet, so, in the perfection of the formal 
and picturesque manners, there is something in common. 
Both call for angularity of figure and sharp projections. 
But the angles of the one are according to rule, those of the 
other cannot be too irregular. And while flowing lines mark 



The Several Styles 



125 



the mixed style, zigzag, broken, rugged lines (fig. 32) stamp 
the picturesque. It recognizes no symmetry, and abhors 
everything allied to law and system. 

And yet, in those examples deducible from the vegetable 
kingdom which may be accounted picturesque, there is much 
of wild grace, eccentric softness, and an indescribable but 




Fig. 32. A Type of the Picturesque. 



charming balance of parts. Although nothing may bear the 
trammels of a rule, or yield to the fetters of definition in 
language, there is no want of the fluidity, the blending, the 
harmony, so ravishing to the eye, interrupted, it may be, 
by some accident, sudden gap or abrupt pause, but still 
full of spirit, and eloquent of beauty. For after all, nature's 
forms lie nearest to man's heart, and no devotion to habit 



1 26 Landscape Gardening 

will conjure away their magic power. The very instincts of 
our souls ally us to what is naturally beautiful. 

Picturesqueness is by some restricted in its application to 
whatever is fitted for being effectively represented in pictures, 
— that, in fact, which an artist would choose to transfer to 
his canvas. I have here given it no such limited meaning. 
Possibly, however, that view of the term may help to illus- 
trate and develop the sense more generally attached to it. 
For it is with wildness, ruggedness, broken ground, straggling 
and bold herbage, dashing water, fantastic groups of vegeta- 
tion, the cracked and discolored stems and tortuous branches 
of trees, ruins nearly dismantled, except of the ivy and the 
fern, rude huts or cottages with their loose and mossy thatch 
or buildings copiously stained by time and lichen, that an 
artist would usually prefer to work. And it is these that go 
far towards comprising the picturesqueness of which I am 
here writing. 



CHAPTER V 

Practical Considerations 

A basis of sound principles being now laid, it will be 
necessary to advance a step further and consider those 
objects worthy of attainment which are most likely to come 
within the scope of the majority of places. I shall thus 
descend by gradual stages into matters more and more prac- 
tical, until at last minor details and operations fill up the 
scale of instruction. In a field so wide, however, it will of 
course be incompatible with the limits of a book like the 
present to touch upon any but the most important heads, or 
to do so otherwise than very lightly. 

i. Economy is, perhaps, one of the first objects to be con- 
sulted in laying out a garden, that the means of the owner 
may be made to effect as much as p cssible, and that his 
subsequent expenditure may be conformable to his circum- 
stances. And here I must lay down as a broad principle that 
economy has no necessary connection with the prime cost of a 
place. The garden on which least has been expended may 
be the most costly in the end. "A thing well done is twice 
done " says the old adage, with remarkable truth and clear- 
ness. 

A prime requisite towards securing economy is to study 
well beforehand what is likely to be wanted or desired and 
form a fixed and definite plan of procedure. Many persons 
begin building a house and laying out a garden on the spur 
of some sudden impulse, and without at all duly considering 
or digesting their actual requirements or the best method 
of accomplishing them. Hence, when they have got half 

127 



128 Landscape Gardening 

through the work their attention becomes awakened to the 
subject, and all sorts of alterations, involving a great addi- 
tional outlay, have to be effected; and after all, the result 
will rarely be a connected and satisfactory one. To delib- 
erate and arrange and determine everything well before com- 
mencing is, therefore, the only way of ensuring economy. 

The avoidance of broad and numerous walks and the 
adaptation of the design to the existing levels of the ground 
will tend powerfully to keep down the expense. The mate- 
rials of which walks are made are often costly and generally 
have to be carted and wheeled from a distance. Much mov- 
ing of earth, too, is always an expensive operation, as in 
addition to the actual labor of shifting it, there will be the 
trouble of throwing off and restoring the surface soil, both 
from the place that has to be lowered and that which is 
raised. 

The cost of keeping up a place must also be thought of 
when the plan for laying it out is under consideration. To 
maintain a lawn in good order is deemed more troublesome 
by some than keeping beds and masses of plants clean. 
But if the whole of the labor has to be paid for, none of it 
being done by members of the family, and beds have a variety 
of flowers in them and are required to be kept very neat and 
duly raked, they will be much more exacting in point of 
labor than grass, especially when the constant trouble of 
keeping their edgings cut with the shears is computed. 
Lawn is consequently on the whole less expensive to keep 
up than flower beds and borders, and should therefore abound 
where economy of keeping is sought. 

But, for a more general rule, whatever gives complexity 
and multiplication of parts to a place, decidedly increases 
the amount of labor demanded for its maintenance. Sim- 
plicity of plan will be by far the most economical. Little 



Practical Considerations I 29 

corners to keep clean, small beds to trim, and minute objects 
to tend, consume the most time and require the most con- 
stant attention. Broader and simpler spaces are most easily 
and quickly preserved with neatness. 

In all ordinary cases one good man will be able to keep two 
acres of ground nicely in order, provided the arrangement of 
the place be not too complex and his attention be not with- 
drawn to other objects. On simple places where there is 
not much dressed ground, one man may care for considerably 
more than this. It must be remembered, however, that if 
there be a greenhouse, fruit-houses, or pits to look after, 
special help should always be allowed, for in attending to 
such things, many hours of each day are often consumed 
without any very obvious result appearing. 

It will remain for every individual to consider these and 
other matters just as much as his particular case may require. 
These hints simply refer to a few of the means of making a 
fixed amount of money produce most pleasure, by being dis- 
tributed over a greater number of objects. For if less is 
expended on one part, more will be left towards compassing 
other and greater ends. 

2. Shelter. — There are few places so peculiarly situated 
as not to need some kind of shelter from one or more points 
of the compass, but still fewer which need it on every side. 
Before arranging the plan of a garden, it will therefore be 
necessary to ascertain what particular winds prevail in the 
locality, and are most injurious to vegetation or most pro- 
ductive of discomfort and unhealthiness. From a little south 
of east passing northwards to a trifle west of north, with the 
intermediate points, is the range in which protection is most 
commonly wanted, the winds from these quarters being never 
either pleasant* to man or beneficial to plants. But certain 
districts near the sea, or on elevated inland tracts may be 



130 Landscape Gardening 

much afflicted with gales from the northwest or storms from 
the southwest, and will need protecting accordingly . 

Many modes of supplying shelter exist, which are more or 
less adapted to local peculiarities. Hedges, fences of various 
sorts, walls, buildings, mounds of earth, or plantations, may- 
all be good in certain situations, and in reference to special 
objects. It is important, however, to bear in mind that any- 
thing hard and dense, such as walls and close fences, only 
serves to divert and increase the current of the wind, directing 
it with greater force to some point beyond, so that these 
things simply afford shelter to objects immediately behind 
them, and do injury to such as are not within the range of 
their protection. It will be easily observable how severely 
any plants that happen to grow a little higher than a pro- 
tecting wall are cut by the power of the wind, and to a far 
greater extent than such as have been entirely unsheltered. 

It follows then that comparatively open and meshy and 
intricately branching materials, such as masses of trees and 
shrubs, are the best means of shelter for an area that is more 
than a few yards across, as they subdue and in a manner 
entangle the currents of wind. This is much on the same 
principle as that by which modern breakwaters act. It is 
now a well-settled fact that the strongest stone walls are less 
durable and influential against a heavy sea than an irregularly 
webby or cellular mass of wood or iron, into which the waves 
can play, and by which their force is so divided and broken 
as to become soon exhausted. This diffusion and the multi- 
plicity of parts in the resisting material renders it much more 
potent. 

Currents of air, which are very similar to currents of water, 
may be best broken by trees in the same way, only the parts 
of trees and shrubs being more minute and numerous, they 
effect the object of shelter even better than any breakwater 



Practical Considerations I 3 1 

could soften the action of the waves. But plantations in 
order to fulfill the purpose well should be pretty dense at the 
bottom as well as in the higher parts, and the broader they 
can conveniently be made the more efficient they will be. 
Mounds or banks of earth, with plantations upon them, will 
be perhaps the best means of shelter in most positions. If 
walls be chosen they will be much more useful when backed 
by a plantation. Fortunately, whatever is usually employed 
for shelter need rarely produce any kind of shade, the north 
and points adjoining it being those which most call for pro- 
tection, and those also on which the rays of the sun will 
never be intercepted. This is assuming, however, that the 
materials used for shelter are kept mainly towards the outer 
edge of a place, as they always should be if the ground be 
nearly flat, because they would there tend to promote privacy 
as well. In a hilly place, the flower garden or pleasure 
grounds may require extra shelter in their immediate neigh- 
borhood. This should be accomplished where possible by 
shrubs only or by trees of a lower growth, that the ground 
behind may not be rendered useless by shade. 

As any openings in a line of objects producing shelter 
would only serve to draw in more violent and destructive 
currents of wind, it is essential that the material used should 
be pretty continuous. If it be a wall or a hedge or a bank of 
earth alone, or any other close object, this point will be of 
still greater consequence, and the narrower the opening, the 
more fiercely would the wind sweep through it. Any obstruc- 
tion to wind will drive it round the ends or through the 
apertures of that obstruction with accumulated force; and 
the smaller the aperture, the more concentrated and powerful 
will be the volume that rushes through it, particularly if the 
obstructing medium be a hard and impervious one. All such 
openings will consequently be bad and destructive, though 



132 Landscape Gardening 

any little variations of height in the upper line of sheltering 
plantations must not be condemned, because these will be 
beautiful in themselves, and will not at all diminish the pro- 
tecting power. 

Sea breezes and gales occur with such frequency in some 
localities and are sometimes so injurious that protection from 
them should be obtained by the thickest and broadest plan- 
tations that can be afforded. And in such instances, even 
the openings through which views of the sea or of a landscape 
in that direction may be desirable should be planted with 
low shrubs that can be seen over and not left unfurnished. 
For if the wind strikes at once on the ground its full force 
will spread itself through the garden, whereas when it first 
meets with a kind of leafy or branchy network, however low, 
its momentum in the line of the ground's surface, where the 
most delicate plants are supposed to exist, will be considerably 
reduced. 

3. Mode of access to a house, whether by a carriage-drive 
or a walk, should be kept as far as possible out of sight of the 
pleasure grounds and principal windows, that neither of these 
may be overlooked by persons coming to the house. It is 
much better to cramp and confine an entrance than to open 
the garden to it. Not that I should choose to do either, but 
merely regard the former as by far the lesser evil. At the 
same time it should be noted that no house ought ever, on 
any of its sides, to stand in a field or park, but should be 
entirely surrounded with a greater or less breadth of garden 
to maintain its character as a house and to harmonize with 
its domestic expression and objects. 

What may be termed an architect's view of a house, which 
is one that embraces the entrance and best garden fronts, 
looked at obliquely, so as to get them both in perspective, is 
often unattainable from a drive, without sacrificing too much 



Practical Considerations 133 

of the breadth and seclusion of the pleasure ground. Still 
it is very desirable that the first view obtained of the house, 
in passing along the drive, should be a favorable one and 
that the approach should appear at all points to tend towards 
the house and not to the stables or outbuildings or in any 
other direction. Hence it is always well that the architect 
and the landscape gardener should be consulted simultan- 
eously before the plan of the house is determined, that the 
architect may adapt the character of his elevations to the 




Fig. 33. Oblique Turn-in from Public Road. 

points at which alone they can be seen from the carriage 
drive. 

An approach ought never to pass the house to which it 
leads and then return to it, for the mere sake of gaining length, 
or of showing off the house or grounds. Such an arrange- 
ment is most unnatural and will do away with all the privacy 
of the place. Nor should the drive enter at the farthest point 
from the house and skirt the boundary all the way to it unless 
that is the most convenient or the only point at which an 
entrance can be made. There is great affectation in desiring 
mere length in a drive when it simply follows the line of the 
outside road. All drives or other approaches should rather 



J 34 



Landscape Gardening 



take the most direct and nearest course from the usual point 
of entrance to the house. But if a little deviation from such 
a course, even to the extent of going beyond the house and 
returning to it, be ever justifiable it is when the ascent to the 
front door is so steep as only to be comfortably reached by a 
circuitous route. 

No entrance should start at an oblique line from the out- 
side road, unless it be at the corner of a place, or from 
decided bend in the road, as in fig. 33; and then the line of the 




Fig. 34. Turn-in at Right Angles. 



drive should decidedly turn away from the line of road. 
Generally a drive requires to commence at right angles from 
another road (fig. 34), even though it should have to take a 
sharp curve in another direction almost immediately after- 
wards. In the great majority of cases, the wing walls or 
other fences on either side of an entrance should present a 
convex form to the high road, as this is the natural form of 
approach, and affords less opportunity for the accumulation 
of weeds or nuisances. But if a dignified architectural char- 
acter be sought, and the entrance is intended to be bold and 
imposing, walls of a reversed or concave figure will perhaps 
be preferable, and a light post and chain fence, in a convex 



Practical Considerations 135 

curve, can be placed outside, enclosing a piece of grass on 
which a few shrubs or trees may be grouped. 

As a house ought invariably to be on higher ground than 
the bulk of the garden, in order that it may not appear damp 
or buried and shut away from all views into the surrounding 
country, so the approach to it, especially where the place is 
small, should be contrived so as to be on a gradual rise all 
the way. A slight dip in the drive with a subsequent and 
more decided ascent where it exists naturally, may sometimes 
be the means of heightening the ground about the house in 
appearance. But a constant rise in the approach will be the 
most uniformly suitable. 

Any curves in a drive or walk to a house will be better if 
they have a very easy sweep, that there may be no tempta- 
tion for vehicles or foot passengers to injure the grass verges 
by taking a shorter turn. 

In tracts of country that are excessively flat, and when the 
form of the house is tolerably regular, having a center and 
two wings, should the exterior boundary of the place be 
about parallel with the entrance front of the house, and the 
distance between the two sufficiently great, a straight drive 
through an avenue composed of two, four, or more rows of 
trees will often have a grand and noble appearance, particu- 
larly if the grounds are otherwise arranged accordantly. 
Wherever the drive is deficient in length, there should be 
only one row of trees on each side of the road, and the width 
of the drive and the distance from it to the trees should be 
also proportioned to the length of the avenue. 

As bearing directly on the subject of avenues, I shall make 
no apology for inserting the following extract, being part of 
a description of the park at Windsor, from a small work 
of mine on the "Parks and Gardens of London and its 
Suburbs." 



136 Landscape Gardening 

"The drive known as the Long Walk is three miles in 
length, in a straight line, and is supported on either side by 
two rows of elms, which have attained their full size, and, with 
a very few unimportant exceptions, are yet in the greatest 
vigor and luxuriance. This avenue will be sure to strike 
the visitor as exceedingly grand. It is somewhat marred, 
however, by being carried over a considerable swell in the 
ground about half way up it, which helps to shorten its 
apparent length, and to make the drive seem as if it were 
not straight, while a more decidedly objectionable feature is 
that it ascends a hill away from the castle at the further end. 
If there are any two circumstances which, more than others, 
require to be kept in view in the formation of avenues, they 
are that the ground over which they run should be nearly 
level, or have one continuous ascent towards the mansion or 
principal object to which they lead, and that consequently 
this object should be on the highest ground, at least as 
respects the avenue. Any avenue that commences on a hill 
and passes down that hill towards its terminating object, 
even though it afterwards rise again near the end, must 
appear to some extent inverted, and every undulation or 
swell of the ground in it will necessarily be a deformity. 
The idea which is conveyed to the mind by the elevation of 
the Long Walk at Windsor, as it reaches its termination in 
the Great Park, is that the Castle ought to be somewhere 
about the site of the statue of George III, by which this walk 
is so appropriately finished. 

" Those familiar with the Champs Elysees at Paris will 
remember that the grand avenue there, like this at Windsor, 
is partly on a steep ascent, away from the palace of the 
Tuileries to the Triumphal Arch at the summit. And 
although this circumstance enhances the effect as viewed 
from the front of the palace, yet, regarded as an approach 



Practical Considerations 137 

to the Tuileries, it causes the latter to appear more or less 
buried in a low marshy tract." 

Avenues that are not in a straight line but are curved or 
otherwise irregular may be convenient or answer some useful 
purpose, as in the road on the northwest side of St. James's 
Park, London, but they can never rise to the dignity of art. 
And when, as is the case with one at Woburn Abbey, they 
are both curved and pass along the ridge of a hill, where, if 
seen from the side and from a lower point, they exhibit a 
flat and monotonous sky line, and also appear thin and 
meager, they are doubly objectionable. 

Anything in the shape of a single row of trees along the 
side of a drive, or a double row that is broken at intervals, 
unless this last be done in the most formal manner, and for 
the sake of opening out a decided vista, would be quite inad- 
missible in an artistic point of view. And the rule will hold 
good with reference to bold and important walks in pleasure 
grounds, except where a square or oblong plot, that is com- 
plete in itself, is merely flanked on either side with a row 
of appropriate plants, the two rows in such case, however 
distant from each other, actually constituting the avenue. 

There is commonly a great propensity to make the sweeps 
of gravel at an entrance door for carriages to turn in a good 
deal too large, for the accommodation of careless coachmen. 
This disfigures and reduces the apparent size of a place con- 
siderably, and must be protested against. The smaller the 
space that can possibly be turned in the better it will look. 
From thirty to forty feet in breadth will be ample, and the 
former will suffice where the approach to the front door is 
by a nearly parallel line, or on a long and gentle curve. The 
error of having the immediate front of the house occupied 
with stretches of gravel drive instead of with green lawn is 
very common in America. Every arrangement of this sort 



138 



Landscape Gardening 



should be avoided. All sorts of houses, except the largest 
and most formal, where a straight approach to the front is 
required, will be better planned with the carriage entrance or 
porte cochere on the side. The breadth and extent of the 
carriage turns may then be reduced to a minimum. 

Wherever it may be possible, the entrance door or porch 
of a house should be approached laterally, and so as to have 
the door on the left. It is very difficult to drive up to a door 
when the line of approach is at a right angle with the house, 




Fig. 35. Carriage Turn for Small Grounds. 

and demands much more space to turn in. By keeping the 
door on the left, too, any one who may be riding with the 
coachman, or any lady who may be driven in a pony carriage 
or phaeton, will alight at once from the side of the carriage 
on which they are seated. Figs. 35 and 36 will exemplify 
this, the former being a simple sweep of the usual shape 
while the latter is broken up by the insertion of a large shrub 
or group of shrubs in the center. 

Cases may occur in which, from the extreme shortness of 
the drive, the character of the house, the desire to make 
the garden private, or the existence of a natural bank of 



Practical Considerations 



J 39 



earth against the carriage sweep, the formation of a walled 
entrance court will be both prudent and ornamental. If the 
walls be but low (three or four feet high) the area of such a 
court need not be much larger than an ordinary carriage 
sweep. But if the court be surrounded with walls ten or 
twelve feet high, it will require to be much larger, and be 
decorated with shrubs and climbers. In either case the wall 
should be architecturally treated and made a main element in 
the design. 




Fig. 36. Carriage Turn with Embellishment. 

In obtaining access to the servants' apartments of a house, 
a few leading rules will have to be observed. If at all prac- 
ticable it should be made quite a separate thing, from the 
outside, and will be more useful if it will admit carts to convey 
supplies to the house and rubbish from it. But where this 
cannot be done, the access may be compassed by a branch 
road or walk from the main approach, keeping this as far as 
possible from the entrance front of the house, and rendering 
it smaller or more confined and less direct than the main 
approach, that the two may never be mistaken for each 
other. 



140 Landscape Gardening 

4. Treatment of walks. — Independently of the approach 
to the house, there will be a greater or lesser number of other 
walks in a garden, the treatment of which will demand much 
attention. They should not strictly follow the boundary of 
a place, unless it be purely in the formal style and its fences 
be architectural. But wherever they diverge from the neigh- 
borhood of the boundary, and indeed at every point through- 
out their length, the outside fences should be kept in the 
background by masses of shrubs and trees, especially the 
former. 

Walks should be made to embrace particular views, to take 
a variety of levels, to be concealed from each other, and to 
have a definite object. All the more interesting aspects of 
the house, the garden, and the country, ought to be seen 
from them at particular and favorable points. These points 
should thus be situated where the ground is highest, in a 
general way, that the view may be more commanding. But 
the house itself ought not to be seen from a greater elevation 
than it actually occupies, unless there be a hollow between it 
and the point of view. Undulation in the surface of walks, 
where it can be suitably attained, will be very effective in the 
production of variety. It must be very gentle and gradual, 
and like the curves in the ground line, the changes should 
pass softly into each other. Sudden swells or hasty dips 
should be alike unknown, unless they are to accomplish 
some special end or are rendered necessary by the natural 
conformation. The highest or lowest parts will best occur 
towards the center of the curves, where the lines are easiest. 

If two walks be seen from each other, when they are taking 
parallel directions, one of them will appear to some extent 
needless, and in the same degree objectionable. Masses of 
shrubs, or banks of earth partially clothed with these, are the 
most natural and gentle divisions for placing between them. 



Practical Considerations 



141 



A walk that leads nowhere or ends in nothing gives an im- 
pression of an unfinished place, and is as unsatisfactory as all 
other abortions. If it be not desirable to continue it beyond 
a certain point, and yet be of consequence that it should pro- 
ceed as far as that point, a summer house, or arbor, or seat 
to obtain a good view, will be a sufficient terminating object. 
Otherwise the walk can be carried round a small loop filled 
with shrubs till it returns again into the same part. A mere 




Branching of a walk. 



cul-de-sac in which a walk or drive expands into a truncated 
form without any outlet is extremely undesirable. 

-No walk must ever turn aside from its course except for 
some sufficient object. A great change of level, a tree, plant, 
or group of plants, and a variety of such things, will justify a 
curve in a walk; and when it is straight, something must be 
distinctly placed to stop it where it turns off in a lateral 
direction. It should appear as if it could not go any further 



142 Landscape Gardening 

in the same line. Repton suggests as an excellent rule that 
where two walks branch off from one another at any point, 
they should take a decided outward turn (fig. 37) so as not 
to seem as if they would soon unite again. Cf course this 
will not apply to the case of their merely passing round circles 
or ovals, where it is simply assumed that the obstacle in the 
center causes a temporary diversion. 

While the shrubs and plantations that skirt the sides of 
walks at intervals are ne^^er placed so as to nake a formal 
line or hedge, nor pruned or clipped into regular shapes, in 
relation to curved walks, they cught not so to intrude upon 
the walks as to prevent their being con-fortably used in wet 
weather. Regard should be had at the time of planting to 
their usual character and habits, -with an ultimate view to 
this convenience. 

In the formation of serpentine walks it is not well to set 
their curves out to any regular radius but simply to please 
the eye. The length or extent of divergence of the curves 
from a central line cannot be too varied and irregular if the 
turns be not sudden and abrupt. Great variety of curves 
will best conduce to newness of scene and maintenance of 
interest. The most delicate point in working them out will 
be to blend two curves nicely together without producing a 
straight or a tame line at their junction. 

Whatever may be at the sides of walks, whether raised 
banks, borders, depressions, or comparatively level ground, 

Fig. 38. Grading to a Walk. 

if a grass edging be used it should always be perfectly 
flat for a greater or less width, according to the space, and 
then gradually rise (fig. 38) with a concave curve, till it 



Practical Considerations 143 



joins a bank or elevated bed. Or else it should gradually 
fall with first a convex (fig. 39) and then a concave curve 
till it unites with the line of a depression or hollow. With 
very precipitous banks that are compelled to be brought 
close to a walk, this rule must be set aside, though rocks, 
stones, roots, etc., clothed with trailing plants, or masses of 




Fig. 39. Grading to a Walk. 

ivy or cotoneaster alone, will be preferable to grass for such 
places. Nothing can be more ugly than a convex grass bank 
reposing angularly on the margin of a walk, and the edge of 
it can never be cut neatly, while it is apt to be pared back 
by orderly gardeners, to keep it to some degree of smooth- 
ness and straightness, until a deep harsh line of bare earth is 
presented at its base. 

5. Fences. — - All the fences of a place, unless they be 
purely architectural ones or occupy some peculiar position, 
should be as light as they can be made consistently with 
strength and be otherwise quiet and inconspicuous. A fence 
is a thing of necessity and not of ornament, and though the 
latter feature may possibly be added to it, it is not usually 
to be wished for. The material, therefore, the color, and 
the form, should be such as will least excite attention and 
can be most readily concealed or disguised. 

Sunk fences are the best of all barriers, when the nature 
of the boundary admits of their application, especially if the 
land beyond them be in grass, for they are not at all seen 
from a distance and are as good as a common wall in keep- 



144 



Landscape Gardening 



ing out cattle or other intruders. But they are very rarely 
fitted for any place except between the lawn and the park, 
where they are invaluable. If the lawn and park be not on 
the same level where the sunk fence separates them, they 
should be made pretty nearly so, or the line of division will 
show itself too much from the house and from some part of 
the park, and the apparent size of the land will be lessened. 
The sunk fence has not been used in America as much as its 
merits and American needs would warrant. 

A sunk fence may be of several different kinds; but, in 
any form, it is important that the ground lines of the excava- 
tion should be carefully regulated. The simplest and most 



^~~z ~ : : 




Fig. 40. Sunken Wall or Fence. 

common mode is (fig. 40) that in which a wall is introduced 
to sustain the earth on the side next the pleasure grounds. 
This wall should always batter slightly and stand about five 
feet above the ground at its base, the sloping fine from it 
extending twelve or fifteen feet, as shown in the figure. In 




Fig. 41. Sloping Invisible Iron Fence. 

fig. 41, no wall is used, but a slight iron or wooden fence is 
placed on the inner slope, and is so slanted that it makes an 
effectual barrier from without, while it is hardly at all per- 
ceptible from the inside. It may be remarked in passing 



Practical Considerations 145 

that it is, of course, more difficult for man or animals to get 
over a fence that slopes towards them. An ordinary wire 
or hurdle fence is, in fig. 42, put in the bottom of the exca- 
vation, this latter being just deep enough to make the fence 




Fig. 42. Common Wire Fence Sunken. 

invisible from the lawn of the pleasure grounds. The inner 
slopes in the two last plans might be used for a collection of 
the dwarfer kinds of shrubs in irregular patches, or for spring 
flowers, when the aspect is sufficiently sunny. 

For outside boundary fences something that is rather 
secure will be principally wanted. Iron railings on the top 
of low walls are most ornamental, and give a friendly, hos- 
pitable, and open character to a place. Walls or close wooden 
palings may be useful near towns or in bad neighborhoods, 
but they should not ordinarily be more than five feet or five 
feet six inches high. Wooden fences are decidedly the most 
troublesome and expensive in the end. Stone walls will have 
a much less ugly appearance if furnished with a neat stone 
coping. Both these and close wooden fences may be mounded 
against on the inside, to the depth of two or more feet, which, 
if the bank be made the full breadth of the border, and softly 
worked into the common level of the garden, or to the edge 
of a walk, will greatly take off the height of the fence from 
the inside, and make it much more easy to hide it with low 
shrubs or masses of wild-looking ivy. Fig. 43 represents a 
fence of this description in which there is a low wall about 
two feet six inches high towards the road and a hedge planted 
immediately within the wall on a sloping bank. The hedge, 
when fully grown, would overhang the wall and be cut flush 



146 Landscape Gardening 

with the face of it, as shown in the sketch. Such a fence 
would be peculiarly neat and trim, and yet quite country- 
like, in any suburban or purely rural district, and it has the 




Fig. 43. Boundary Wall with Planting. 

merit of presenting no bank which could crumble or be trod- 
den away on the side next the road, while on the inside the 
entire fence is as inconspicuous as possible. 

Inside fences for separating one part of a place from another 
or for protecting plantations in a park need not be nearly so 
strong as those for the exterior boundary. Hedges in such 
places are mostly deformities in a scene. Between the field 
and the lawn they cut off all connection and the field might 
as well not exist, as far as effect is concerned. Around plan- 
tations, too, they are scarcely a whit more in place, for they 
give them a hard and stiff outline and prevent the branches 
of the trees from sweeping the ground, which is a prominent 
beauty. Trees never show to advantage unless one can 
see distinctly where they rise out of the ground, and how 
their branches rest upon it, or incline towards it. Hedges 
around them coop them up in a kind of nest. If the hedges 
be trimmed, as they must be to become at all useful, their 
effect will be decidedly worse. When left to grow wildly 
and irregularly, they may be somewhat less objectionable. 

Different descriptions of light iron fence, especially wrought 
iron, will be superior to anything else for divisions in a place, 



Practical Considerations 147 

or for surrounding plantations in a part grazed by sheep or 
cattle. A wire fence is the lightest, strongest, neatest, and 
best for a decided fixture, and may be adapted nicely to any 
sort of curves. Galvanized wire, of which it is sometimes 
made, is liable to become corroded, especially by the action 
of sea air. The supports of a wire fence should always be 
bedded in stone or cement. If this kind of fence be used for 
a straight line — across the foot of a lawn, for instance — 
where no extra stays will be needed, it is extremely light and 
quiet looking. The greater the number of curves, and the 
more sudden these are, the more expensive will be the fence 
on account of the increased number of stays; but under any 
circumstances it will be the cheapest kind of fence, taking 
everything into account, and considering its durability. 

A common wire fence can be three feet six inches or four 
feet high, and have six horizontal wires, which will exclude 
lambs. These last easily get through the ordinary fences, 
and may do great mischief in a garden or plantation. The 
fence should be placed at least six feet from any plants in a 
garden or a group, that cattle may not easily browse them, 
or sheep crop off all the ends of their lower shoots. 

In certain parts of a place disagreeable objects, as rubbish 
or yards, require to be excluded and walls would perhaps be 
objectionable or too expensive, while hedges would either be 
too long in growing, or the situation is so shaded that no 
hedge could ever thrive in it. For such positions, the rustic 
close fence, fig. 44, composed of larch poles with the bark on 
and intended to be partially covered with ivy and other 
climbers, is quiet and harmonizes well with any shrubs or 
trees that may be in the neighborhood, and creates at once 
a complete screen. It may be six or eight feet high, or even 
higher if necessary. 

To protect single trees planted in a field, a low circular, 



148 



Landscape Gardening 



square, or octagonal frame, to stand about three or four feet 
from the stem of the tree, composed entirely of larch or pine 




Fig. 44. Rustic Fence. 

wood, two or three inches in diameter, split into two and 
the bark left on, will be a convenient and sightly mode. 




Fig. 45. Simple Protector for Tree. 

This frame can be formed either wholly of upright pieces of 
wood, about two or three inches apart (fig. 45) and fast- 
ened to connecting cross bars inside, the four corner pieces 



Practical Considerations 149 

being longer than the rest, and fixed into the ground; or, if 
square, the sides may be made of similar wood, fastened cross- 
wise at about the same distance apart to inside uprights, 
the four posts at the corners being retained as in the other 
case. The guards might, if desired, be placed much nearer 
the tree, and made twice the height, or about six feet from 
the ground, in which case the sides should be filled in with 




Fig. 46. Tree Protected by Undergrowth. 

horizontal instead of vertical bars. The bark-covered side 
of the whole should be presented outwards. Strong iron 
wire guards, six or eight feet across and dividing into two 
parts, may likewise be used, especially where the branches 
of the trees grow low upon the stem. 

Where a permanent fence around single trees in a field 
would be considered an eyesore, this may be dispensed with 
by planting around the base of the tree irregularly, and as if 
by accident, two or three common thorns, (fig. 46), with an 



150 Landscape Gardening 



occasional holly or kalmia to vary their appearance, and 
give them more liveliness in winter. If left unpruned and 
suffered to take entirely their own course these plants will, 
after a few years' protection, become quite sufficient guards 
to the trees, and will have rather a picturesque effect. 
Unquestionably, however, they will detract from the sym- 
metry and dignity of the tree. 

That the color of fences is by no means unimportant, will 
readily be deduced from what has been urged as to giving 
them a quiet appearance. All light paints, such as white or 
stone-color, will be exceedingly out of place, unless the fence 
is very handsome and intended to be made conspicuous. 
Green, as harmonizing best with the color of grass and vege- 
tation generally, will be the most appropriate. 

6. Outlines of Beds. — In dealing with the outlines of 
beds and masses, besides the variation, freshness, easiness 
and grace of sweep, which it is desirable to procure in 
respect to such as are to contain shrubs, or shrubs and 
trees, much may likewise be done by the manner of planting 
them. Although it is necessary, to secure any degree of 
order and beauty for a few years, that the shape of irregular 
masses should be set out in a series of bold, well-connected 
and flowing curves, the actual outline of the plants, when 
they have reached some eight or ten years' growth, must 
never be supposed or arranged to take any such figure. On 
the contrary, each plant, in the front at least, like the heads 
of old trees in a forest, should jut forward or retire with a 
curve of its own, forming an infinitely more numerous and 
more varied series of little curves, these again uniting, in 
their general outlines, to fill up and vary the series of larger 
sweeps at first marked out on the ground. Fig. 47 will best 
explain this, the dotted line along the front exhibiting the 
curved outline of the plantation as it would be set out on the 



Practical Considerations 151 

ground, and the broken, inner, shaded line immediately 
behind it indicating the kind of shape which the trees and 
shrubs would take, in their front lines, when fully grown. 

Instead, therefore, of the outside plants in a mass following 
implicitly the lines by which it is defined on the ground, they 
should stand forward or recede in the most irregular fashion, 
approaching nearest to the front of the bed at the prominent 
parts, and towards the middle or one of the sides of the 
recesses, but retiring a good deal in other places, and espe- 
cially in those portions of the recesses on either side of the 




Fig. 47. Proper Form for Border Planting. 

advanced specimens just named. In addition to this, and to 
heighten the variety of outline still more, the larger growing 
things, and such as will spread forward most on the grass, 
may be put here and there along the very front rank of plants, 
the smallest growing kinds being kept among such as are 
planted farthest back. Thus, when the border comes to be 
turfed over, if ever it should be so covered, the edges of the 
mass will be as broken, yet as softly rounded and blended, 
as those of a natural thicket; and should the front of the 
border be retained for flowers, the shrubs will still produce 



152 Landscape Gardening 

the same effect as to outline, though it will not be exhibited 
so well. 

Mere rows of plants that have length without breadth, 
and are easily seen through at all seasons, will ever appear 
poverty-stricken and meager. Every group should have 
some kind of proportion preserved in its parts, especially 
between its two principal dimensions. All narrowness and 
thinness will be fatal to this. It is clusters or masses, not 
mere strips, of plants that are wanted in a garden, a field or 
a park. Long and slender beds of them look too much like 
hedges. 

Each plantation or mass of plants upon a lawn will demand 
to be treated separately, - and yet in relation to others. Its 
own individual outlines should be such as I have described, 
but these must make part of a series of fines of which the 
sides of a lawn are composed. It will not be enough to have 
one group well and tastefully defined; each group must play 
its part in the whole scene and be shaped so as best to exhibit 
both itself and others. In laying out a number of groups, 
then, it will be proper first to arrange them in the plan as if 
they were one continued mass, and then regard them as 
severed up by walks or other divisions, in the way that may 
be afterwards found expedient. Two or more beds, where 
a walk divides them, should have their outlines arranged 
(fig. 48) so as to look like one when viewed from a distance. 
The edges of these beds towards the walk may be either 
broken into bays, as in fig. 48, or be made continuously 
regular, with a verge of a uniform width. Either of these 
modes may be adopted at pleasure, or the latter may be 
selected where the masses of shrubs are but narrow and 
small and the former used when they are more ample. 

7. Sky Lines. — ■ But the best arrangement of plants as to 
the shape and relative position of the masses will be unfinished 



Practical Considerations 



l 52 



and defective unless their upper outlines, when fully grown, 
are properly calculated upon. From some point of view, 
whether nearer or more distant, the tops of almost every mass 
of plants will cut the horizon, and stand out against a back- 
ground of mere sky. If nicely disposed this sky outline will 
yield the most charming effects. But it may also be hard 
or tame, and thus become disagreeable or utterly ineffective. 




Fig. 48. Two Groups which look like One. 

By a reference to nature, especially in her older vegetable 
forms, a few large and comprehensive hints may soon be 
gathered on this point. In the horizontal outlines of forest 
groups, the greatest diversity, and yet the most pleasing 
roundness and interfusion of parts, is observable. Like the 
ground lines of shrubberies which I have just attempted to 
sketch, there will be a great number of bolder or lesser curves 
united to make up broader sweeps and more expansive varia- 
tions. Occasionally a tree or shrub of some spiry or unusually 



r S4 



Landscape Gardening 



upright character will spring out of the masses of round- 
headed vegetation and give increased variety to the outline 
without weakening the general smoothness of the effect, while 




Fig. 49. A Mixed Group. 

the edges of the masses will be delightfully softened off and 
feathered down, so as to unite by an easy and graceful line 
with the sweep of the ground in the glades between them. 




Fig. 50. A Good Picturesque Grouping. 

It is something of this sort, in a humbler way, that is 
wanted in garden or home plantations. The sky line requires 
to be broken, but not in a hard or abrupt manner. Trees 



Practical Considerations 



*ss 



or shrubs should tower out, here and there above the rest, 
but they must not be unsupported. (See figs. 49 and 50.) 
Their edges should blend with other forms by the softest 
transition. Boldness, as well as easiness of change, will be 
highly effective. But it should be like the bold swell of a 
general curve, composed, it may be, of several parts, but the 
outer of these gradually carrying down the line to the lower 
and humbler forms. Or, if the more spiry plants now and 
then find a place, as they may do most usefully, to give greater 
change and strength of character, they should not rise very 




Fig. 51. How to Plant a Hill. 

much above the rest and should appear to belong to a group 
of the more spreading and clustering kinds, like the spire of 
a church peering out from amid a grove of ancient elms. 

On estates where there are sufficient variations. of surface 
and extent of property to admit of the introduction of such 
a feature, a most happy effect may sometimes be produced 
by partially planting the summit and slope of an adjacent 
hill (fig. 51), so as to convey the idea of large woods, of 
which the parts seen are but the straggling arms or offshoots 
lying behind and on the other face of the hill. And if treated 
with proper boldness and regard to diversity, such masses of 



156 Landscape Gardening 

wood, with their outlying specimen trees or bushes, will 
greatly enrich the hill and relieve it from any tendency to 
undue roundness or tameness of outline. An excellent mode 
for this treatment may often be seen in the delightfully pic- 
turesque and ragged patches of common trees with which 
nature sometimes clothes the faces of hills of a similar charac- 
ter, such masses nearly always presenting a remarkable fresh- 
ness, freedom, and beauty of outline. 

8- Herbaceous Plants. — In respect to the disposal of 
flowers in gardens, if we include in that term all the simply 
herbaceous kinds that are not shrubby, or at any rate merely 
such additional low shrubs as are grown out of doors only in 
the summer, a considerable reformation in the prevailing 
practice seems demanded. The beds or masses of shrubs on 
a lawn are often entirely surrounded with a strip of ground 
appropriated exclusively to the herbaceous tribes. The edges 
of groups are thus most defectively and tamely finished off; 
they have an exceedingly blank appearance in winter; the 
size of the lawn is materially diminished; and such borders 
can never, without a great deal of trouble, be very neatly 
kept. To compensate for all this, they impart a little addi- 
tional gayety during summer, which might, however, be read- 
ily attained in other ways. 

The desirable plan would be to dismiss all common herba- 
ceous plants from the fronts of groups on the lawn, and to 
grow such flowers in a separate flower garden. The greater 
merit of this plan is nowadays widely accepted. 

Not to banish the large class of herbaceous plants and bulbs 
which could not be thus brought together in beds, and many 
of which, more especially the spring-flowering species, are 
extremely interesting, I would grow them in the places usually 
assigned to them round all the masses of shrubs for the first 
three or four years after these were planted, and until they 



Practical Considerations 157 

became fit to be surrounded wholly with turf, when the lower 
tribes might be consigned altogether to those back borders, 
which faced the side walks and were not seen from the lawn, 
or to such other parts of the pleasure grounds as did not come 
into view from the house, and of which the shrubbery walk 
will be an illustration. 

It must be remembered, then, that shrubs which are but 
just planted and insufficiently established, will not bear turf- 
ing around for several years without injury. They require 
air to their roots to start them freely. And any neglect of 
this treatment, by turfing around them prematurely, will 
be productive. of the very worst consequences. It has been 
known to retard their growth for many years, or even to go 
very far towards destroying them altogether. But they need 
not have a broad border for this purpose, and anything 
beyond four or five feet will be both superfluous and ugly. 

By keeping the commoner herbaceous plants in such private 
parts as have been named, they may be cultivated just as 
fitly as if they were in the more exposed places where they 
are now usually grown. And they can thus be allowed a 
breadth of border which will give them a much finer oppor- 
tunity of developing themselves, only taking care that speci- 
men shrubs are brought forward singly or in groups here and 
there, along the border, to do away with all monotony and 
produce a little more freshness and life. 

9. Flowers in Grass. — Certain kinds of flowers, especially 
spring bulbs, succeed admirably if planted freely in the lawn. 
Crocuses and daffodils are especially well adapted to this 
treatment, and give most excellent results. The poet's nar- 
cissus is a favorite for planting in the grass, but the trumpet 
varieties of narcissus are equally good, while even tulips and 
hyacinths may be naturalized in this manner with reasonably 
good results. In attempting anything of this sort the bulbs 



158 Landscape Gardening 

must be strewn with a liberal hand. They should be planted 
by thousands, - — not by dozens. 

10. Specimen Plants. • — Where a place is so small that 
there cannot be many single plants grown upon the lawn, to 
exhibit their full beauty and proportions, it will be a judicious 
plan to treat a number of the plants in the beds or groups 
mainly as specimens, that they may show themselves better 
and that the natural desire for individualizing objects of 
attention and watching and tending them during their prog- 
ress may be duly gratified. Besides which, by thus making 
each plant a more or less perfect one, a way will be prepared 
for subsequently covering more of the soil in. the bed with 
turf, and so increasing the size of the lawn, or ultimately 
turfing over the whole and leaving the best plants to stand 
on the grass. 

The method of rendering individual plants shapely and fit 
to stand by themselves is very simple. It is not by planting 
so thinly in the first instance; for, however that plan might 
succeed in some soils and climates, it will more generally be 
found serviceable to plant rather thickly, in order to afford 
encouragement and shelter. It is by early and annual atten- 
tion to thinning, and by preventing any one plant from 
intruding on another, whether as to light, air, or nourishment 
from the soil, that the best specimens can be reared. And 
though it may be prudent to put in at first such kinds of 
plants at such distances as will finally be required for fixtures 
and fill in between them with commoner sorts for a tem- 
porary purpose, it will be wise in thinning to choose rather 
those which have made a good healthy growth, and are not 
really inappropriate, than mere sickly objects which may 
have been intended to remain, and have not individually 
made progress enough, or do not exhibit sufficient promise 
to justify their retention. 



Practical Considerations 159 

Sometimes, when persons have thoroughly imbued them- 
selves with the notion that specimens are the chief thing to 
be desired in a small place, they gradually acquire the impres- 
sion that nothing else is proper to be encouraged and that 
everything should be made into a specimen. This opinion, 
however, if fully acted upon, would lead to as much sameness 
and dullness as if nothing but dense and variegated masses of 
plants were cultivated. The most beautiful combinations 
and the most exquisite variety will result from letting a few 
plants of different heights and characters grow together in 
some parts as they do in a state of nature, where bushes and 
trees often mingle their forms and are linked into closer union 
by the tangling clematis, lusty briar, or luxuriant bramble. 

11. Thickets. — Towards the boundaries of a place the 
plants in a border, especially if it be narrow, will have to be 
treated still more generally, and with a less regard to their 
individual appearance. Here the aim must be to obtain a 
good undergrowth if there be trees, or to permit the forma- 
tion of thickets where there are only shrubs. They may like- 
wise be parts of an inner plantation or group, where peculiar 
denseness is wanted to cover some defect, or to make the 
walk more perfectly private; and in these the same charac- 
teristics should be cherished. 

Thickets, besides being useful as screens to various objects, 
will be interesting both for the variety and beauty. They 
will form a great change from the more open method of cul- 
ture, and exhibit much beauty of connection and contrast. 
There will be a luxuriance and a freeness and an indefinite- 
ness about them which will not fail to please. It is not to 
be assumed, however, that such masses are intended to be 
as thick as the plants will stand on the ground, or to be left 
to a pure state of nature. In that case the stronger would 
soon overpower the weaker and the better sorts would die 



160 Landscape Gardening 



out, leaving serious gaps where they had grown, and a wild- 
ness and want of cultivation foreign to the character of a 
garden would speedily ensue. The term thicket is used here 
to define a plantation in which shrubs prevail, and where 
they are kept but sparingly thinned out, and are allowed to 
grow into each other pretty freely so long as they are not 
likely to destroy one another. It is a mass wherein the 
plants are so arranged, and stand so thickly, that it cannot 
be seen through, not one which has been produced by neglect. 
Undergrowth will be chiefly, almost solely, requisite be- 
neath trees which are growing so closely together that their 
branches cannot reach the ground, and the bare stems become 
prominent and unsightly in consequence, while the object of 
the plantation, as respects the concealment of a boundary, is 
defeated. Scarcely any plant is equal to the holly for under- 
growth, since it will flourish under trees, and is not limited 
as to height, and is a thorough evergreen. Privet is superior 
as a rapid grower and of a denser habit, if not too much 
drawn up, but it is deficient in the size of the leaves, and in 
not being entirely evergreen. Rhododendrons thrive exceed- 
ingly well under shade, but require careful watering for a 
year or two. Common laurel will endure some amount of it, 
but are injured by an excessive quantity. All these are ever- 
green and of course so much the more adapted for filling 
up permanently the space under trees. Elders, dogwoods, 
the Norway maple, snowberries, and even lilacs, as deciduous 
plants, will thrive beneath shade, though they cannot be 
expected to bloom much in that position. The true secret of 
causing any of the plants mentioned to succeed permanently 
when largely overshadowed by trees lies in renewing the soil 
around and above the roots occasionally to compensate for 
the exhaustion produced by the more extensive absorption 
of its nutritive properties by the trees. 



Practical Considerations 1 6 1 

12. Evergreens. — As a garden will only contain a com- 
paratively limited number of plants, it is a matter of policy 
to have a number of these evergreens, that in the winter 
season, when all else is so dreary, it may wear a moderately 
green and cheerful expression. 

Although evergreens may fitly thus prevail in a place, it 
will be unwise to cultivate them to the exclusion of deciduous 
shrubs. The latter by their lighter foliage and sprightlier 
manner of growth and showier flowers seem to be the natural 
bodying forth of summer's richness and gayety. And this 
glorious season would scarcely appear rightly attended and 
adorned without them. They are indeed as thoroughly the 
life of summer as evergreens are of winter; and perhaps, of 
the two, the absence of winter's decorations would be least 
regretted by the mass. 

Nor must the higher forms of deciduous plants, which take 
the shape of low trees, be at all omitted from our considera- 
tion. These and a few of the more striking and peculiar 
kinds of larger trees — such as the purple beech, the varie- 
gated sycamore, the scarlet oak, the lombardy poplar, and 
numerous others — will be invaluable in the way of contrib- 
uting variety and improving the outlines. It will be suffi- 
cient to mention laburnums, almonds, the extensive and 
deeply interesting tribe of thorns, the double cherries, double 
peach, and double almonds, the sumachs, the Pyrus specta- 
bilis, the bird cherry, the mountain ash, and the service 
berries. 

13. Garden Architecture. — The subject of architectural 
gardening has been incidentally discussed in relation to the 
geometrical style of treatment and in other parts of this 
book. But the feeling for it is one that is so rapidly grow- 
ing, and so little sound knowledge of its details is commonly 
possessed, that a few additional particulars and illustrations 



1 62 Landscape Gardening 

become essential. In adverting to it, however, I am tempted 
to make a short incursion into the territory of a neighboring 
profession — architecture - — with which indeed it is so closely 
connected, that it would be impossible to treat of the one 
without trespassing on the other. 

Gardening and architecture, like all the fine arts, have 
much in common. And that department of architecture 
which belongs more exclusively to the garden has especially 
a great affinity with gardening in its broader principles. In 
fact there is much more relation between the two than is 
usually admitted or the ordinary products of practitioners 
in either art would at all justify us in believing. 

Architectural decoration is not, as many would assert, 
unfitted for English or American gardens, because stone gets 
speedily weather-stained and sobered down in color, and the 
fine evergreens and beautiful grass of these countries will, 
in association with architectural objects, impart sufficient 
warmth of tone. 

Modern tendencies in gardening have been too much away 
from its character as an art, and the more it is restored to its 
legitimate position the more nearly will it be brought into 
kindred with architecture. On the other hand the too com- 
monly cumbrous, regular, and unyielding nature of architec- 
tural objects, when used for garden decoration, has tended 
still further to detach two pursuits which are essentially and 
obviously allied. For as a house and a garden are naturally 
and intimately associated, and it is a law of the universe that 
the boundaries of each domain in the natural kingdom should 
insensibly mingle and be lost in each other, so it is plain that 
an unvitiated taste would be most gratified when the province 
of architecture is extended so as to embrace lightly and har- 
moniously such parts of the garden as may be most con- 
tiguous to the house; while the garden also in these parts 



Practical Considerations 163 

rises in character to meet the requirements of the architec- 
ture, until either art is so refined and attenuated that it would 
be most difficult to say what belongs exclusively to each. 

Still, there is that about gardening, which in the nature of 
things, and apart from the difference of the materials with 
which it has to deal, constitutes it a distinctive art. And 
garden architecture has lineaments of its own so decidedly 
removed from those of house architecture, and so seldom 
studied, that the ordinary architectural practitioner is at sea 
the moment he enters the region of the garden. It is less a 
matter of rule and measurement. Its effects are more to be 
judged of by the eye. It comprehends a far greater variety 
of combinations. It requires a man to be as much an artist 
(at least in feeling) as an architect, and to be familiar with 
natural groupings and tones, — - to take in an entire landscape 
in the range of his design, and not merely isolated or detached 
objects. In fact the garden architect has to make a general 
picture and not simply to set a work of art, as it were, on a 
solitary pedestal. 

The province of garden architecture is primarily to supply 
fitting appendages and accompaniments to a house so that 
the latter may not appear naked, alone, and unsupported. If 
judiciously applied it will be effective in helping to produce a 
good outline or group; to carry down the lines of the house; 
to connect it with other buildings, such as a conservatory, 
arbor, etc.; to provide a proper basement for the house; to 
afford shelter and privacy to a flower garden; to extend the 
facade or frontage of a house; to shut out back yards, offices, 
etc. ; to enrich, vary, and enliven the garden ; to supply con- 
veniences, such as shelter, receptacles for birds, plants, sculp- 
ture, etc., with museums for works of art or specimens of 
natural history, and supports for climbing plants; to indicate 
refinement, wealth, and a love of art ; and otherwise to blend 



164 Landscape Gardening 

the various constituents of a garden with the house and 
harmonize the two by communicating a more artistic tone 
to the garden. 

Wing walls to a house, broken by a conservatory, and ter- 
minated by a summer house, aviary, museum, or sculpture 
room ; corridors, similarly broken and terminated, and glazed 
or open so as merely to form covered ways; viaducts, aque- 
ducts, arbors, arches, arcades, tunnels, boathouses, temples, 
prospect and flag towers; with an almost infinite number of 
smaller objects, such as sculptured figures, sundials, statu- 
ary, pillars, obelisks, terrace walls, etc., constitute the elements 
with which garden architecture has to work. 

In its leading traits it necessarily comes within the same 
category as house architecture, and is governed by the same 
principles. Like the house it should exhibit design, some 
degree of symmetry, harmony of parts, unity of expression, 
consistency of style, fitness for the locality, adaptation for 
the intended purpose, and stability and permanence of ap- 
pearance. 

But it should also display a greater amount of lightness 
and elegance; a comparative absence of regularity; a decora- 
tive rather than an exclusively useful purpose; a superior 
variety of outline; extreme attention to general grouping; a 
blending of its forms with those of nature ; an especial regard 
for placing its creations where they will have a distinct mean- 
ing and object; a leaning to the use of good materials, but 
somewhat rougher than those employed in the house; a pref- 
erence rather for a picturesque outline than for mere orna- 
mental details; and, as a most important characteristic, a 
marked boldness and prominence of parts. Indeed, pic- 
turesqueness, such as would be occasioned by changes of 
level in the ground, by diversity in the heights of walls, by 
prominent piers, buttresses, or cornices, by broad projecting 



Practical Considerations 165 

eaves to the roofs of buildings, and by any arrangement that 
will yield depth of shadow, should be the ruling constituent 
of garden architecture. 

Every architectural object admitted into a garden should 
form part of the general plan of that garden and fit into its 
proper place. It will create a serious incongruity if merely 
put down at random, or not duly established as a part of the 
main design. Smaller architectural ornaments, too, must be 
adequately connected with and kept in the neighborhood of 
the house or other sufficiently important building, otherwise 
they will be too different from the forms of nature to appear 
harmonious. 

A strictly garden building or object, unless very large, 
should never be obtrusive. It ought always to be quiet look- 
ing, and not violently different in color from the surround- 
ing vegetation. Hence, white, whether in marble, stone, or 
painted objects, is decidedly to be avoided, and a warm drab 
or darker tint preferred. 

When a terrace or other ornamental wall — whether balus- 
traded or otherwise pierced, or simply devoid of any relief in 
the way of openings — becomes the principal foreground to a 
garden or other scene, as viewed from the windows of the 
house, it will appear too hard, cold, monotonous, however 
much it may be broken up by piers, vases, etc., without some 
aid from grass and shrubs. In all such cases, therefore, there 
should be a broad band of grass between the terrace walk and 
the wall, and a few clusters of evergreens, rising in broken 
masses above the line of the wall, or of climbers mantling its 
summit in occasional patches, will require to be skillfully in- 
troduced; otherwise the wall would seem to divorce rather 
than mingle with the landscape beyond. 

To pass from the consideration of garden architecture, 
which, however seductive a topic, scarcely falls within the 



1 66 Landscape Gardening 

range of this work, I now return to the subject of architec- 
tural gardening. Its distinctive principles are as follows: a 
strict observance of rule; a prominent indication or exhibition 
of art; the maintenance of a decided harmony and connection 
with the house and other architectural objects; the adoption 
of regular figures ; the employment of rigid, formal, and exotic 
plants; the necessity for flat and even surfaces, with the use 
of terrace banks or extremely regular slopes; and the produc- 
tion of a conspicuous character of dignity and repose. 

The proper field for architectural gardening is the imme- 
diate neighborhood of the house; as an accompaniment to 
particular styles of architecture, especially the Italian; in 
connection with detached architectural structures, as temples, 
plant-houses, etc.; within the circuit of the flower garden, 
parterre, rose garden, etc. ; in the gardens attached to a palace, 
mansion, or first-class villa, rather than to a small villa or 
cottage residence; the kitchen garden; and, where the cir- 
cumstances are favorable, the town garden. 

There are certain incongruities and defects which fre- 
quently attend the practice of architectural gardening and 
which should be sedulously avoided. Some of these are the 
mixture of inharmonious styles; the use of rustic or unarchi- 
tectural ornaments, except in remote parts, and where they 
will not be observed as constituents of the general scene; the 
placing of terrace walls or other construction on a sloping 
bank, or where they have shelving ground immediately 
below them; the extension of a formal mode of treatment 
into the park; generally the obtrusion of a flower garden 
into the view from the principal windows, unless it be on a 
lower level than the base of the house; an avenue or row of 
trees that crosses any main line of view, or one on the sum- 
mit of a hill that forms the line of horizon ; a curved avenue, 
unless it be obviously laid in the arc of a circle; a ground line 



Practical Considerations 167 

that is oblique to the basement of the house, on either of its 
chief fronts; diagonal lines of walk on lawns, or walks crossing 
or starting from other straight walks at any but a right angle; 
plants trimmed into formal or grotesque figures, unless it be 
the heads of standards, plants with naturally appropriate 
habits, or confined in tubs, being preferable; gravel walks, 
in flower gardens, that are inaccessible; monograms, or very 
intricate patterns, in which the beds are too small to admit 
flowers, for parterres; and the employment of pavements, 
gravels, or sands, of different colors, in the place of flowers, 
or merely for producing variety or contrast. 

Among the most characteristic details of architectural gar- 
dening prominence should be given to terraces; broad, flat, 
and conspicuous walks; extreme smoothness and polish; 
changes of level effected by formal banks or walls; raised 
beds and sunken panels; avenues, vistas, rows of flower beds; 
walks and vistas terminating with some proper object, as a 
temple, obelisk, pillar, etc.; rectangular forms, or those in 
which various segments of a circle are combined; with a 
sunk fence and parapet wall as boundaries to a garden. 

There are likewise many desirable accessories, of which a 
few- may be noted. These are as follows: a sufficient breadth 
of open lawn between the house and the park; a detached 
flower garden, with accompanying plant houses, or walls for 
ornamental climbers, and the opportunity of looking down 
upon this garden from a raised terrace; a rose garden, in a 
retired spot, with attendant rose house or houses for delicate 
sorts; a winter garden, to be filled exclusively with ever- 
greens, the beds arranged in pattern, with a due admixture of 
specimens, and all the plants selected with reference to their 
habits and the color of their foliage in winter; a garden for 
bulbs, florists' flowers, etc., in some spot which need not be 
made accessible during the winter; standard or fastigiate 



1 68 Landscape Gardening 

plants; plants that blend best with architectural objects; 
groups or beds of plants, in which one kind or class prevails; 
and hedges, whether to frame and enclose scenes that it is 
wished to detach, or, in a diminutive state, to make borders 
and edgings to flower beds and clumps. 

In applying practically the principles of architectural gar- 
dening it should be remembered that, as extreme irregularity 
is a merit and a beauty in most kinds of Gothic architecture, 
the garden accompanying it will also bear to be treated in an 
equally irregular manner. But in relation to any variety of 
Grecian or Italian house, the garden, like the architecture, 
should be more distinguished by symmetry and regularity. 
Architectural gardening would be out of place in connection 
with a house inferior in design, or destitute of character and 
style. It is peculiarly suitable for a tame and smooth general 
landscape; but is quite admissible, for contrast, in a pic- 
turesque, bold, and wild region. It especially demands that 
everything should be good, and nicely finished; that the plants 
shall be of the best and most carefully selected kinds; the 
grass evenly laid; the figures, and beds, and edgings of walks 
neatly and accurately cut; the gravel fine and well laid and 
its smoothness not obviously broken by gratings. The edg- 
ings, too, should all be particularly shallow, the edges of 
terrace banks quite square and even at the top, and the soil 
in the beds and clumps very slightly raised above the level of 
the lawn. The spaces for specimens, flower beds, and masses 
of shrubs should, moreover, be cut out of the flat lawn and 
not have the grass curved up to them as in the more natural 
style of treatment. And all the lines, whether of walks or 
other edgings, ought to be extremely straight and regular, 
thoroughly well beaten and level, and the grass be very fine 
and smooth. 

In making terrace walls where they do not run along the 



Practical Considerations 



169 



principal front of a house, or are far enough from it not to 
come into absolute connection with it there will sometimes 
occur a slope, of greater or less steepness, at the base of the 
wall, such as scarcely any ingenuity or any labor would 
suffice to get rid of, and where it is most difficult to reconcile 
the discrepancy between the raking ground line and the level 
courses of the wall or of the house. Fig. 52 will afford a hint 
of the way in which I have dealt with a case of that sort by 
keeping all the ground lines, where they are in grass, exactly 
parallel with the courses of the wall, and effecting the changes 




Fig. 52. Terrace Disguised by Plantings. 

of level in the ground at the points where patches of shrubs 
are introduced. These shrubs, being mostly evergreen and in 
varied groups, not only mask the breaks in the ground line 
but blend beautifully with the wall, and, aided by a few inter- 
mediate climbers, clothe it most picturesquely. 

The practice of employing masses of evergreens to cover 
changes of level in grounds, to break the transition between 
a terrace bank and a natural slope, to fill up the corners of 
terraces and relieve the hardness and bareness of their walls, 
and in many ways to reconcile discrepant lines in the form 
of ground, is one which I have largely and for several years 
adopted. And I have invariably found it of the greatest 



170 Landscape Gardening 

> 

possible service, while the result obtained from it is always 
satisfactory. Indeed, this seems to be the only feasible and 
really thorough solution of a problem which every practi- 
tioner who has to direct the shaping of ground about houses 
must be constantly encountering. 

As an elaborate example of architectural gardening, on a 
tolerably extensive scale, I may now introduce fig. 53, which 
depicts a portion of the pleasure grounds which I arranged 
a few years ago for John Naylor, Esq., of Leighton Hall, 
near Welshpool. The smallness of the engraving unfortu- 
nately renders the minor parts of the plan very indistinct and 
prevents me from giving the full details of the treatment. 
Enough of the entrance front is shown to indicate that there 
are two roads of approach and a large graveled space on the 
west side of the house; and from this front the terrace (1) 
and the flower garden (5) are screened by a handsome stone 
wall, which, like the house and all the other walls, is com- 
posed of a nearly black species of trap, with white freestone 
copings and dressings. The terrace (1), which stands about 
three feet above the lawn and is supported by a neat parapet 
wall, extends along the northern and eastern sides of the 
house, and in front of an ornamental wall connecting the 
latter with a camellia house (9) whence it passes eastward 
and terminates against a steep bank, the walk ranging round 
a raised bed of evergreen shrubs (n) with a stone edging to 
it. There are steps and communications from this terrace at 
various points with other parts of the pleasure grounds. The 
kitchen court is at 2, and 3 points out the back approach 
to it. 

A leading walk from the terrace, opposite the principal 
tower of the hall, conducts us over a viaduct (4) of several 
arches to other important walks not included in the plan; 
and from the viaduct there is a view of the winter garden to 




Kg*::. 



Practical Considerations 



171 




Fig. 53. Plan of an Architectural Garden. 



172 Landscape Gardening 

the south, and of a small irregular lake on lower ground 
to the north. The flower garden is at 5 on the south side 
of the house, and is enclosed by an ornamental wall about 
eight feet high with buttresses. It is divided into two parts, 
separated by a terrace bank and a low wall with vases upon 
it; the part 5 being intended for purely summer flowers, in 
beds of one color, while the upper half (6), which is four 
feet higher, is designed for mixed herbaceous plants. The 
whole is diversified with specimen plants and vases, and the 
center walk is terminated by a summer house through which 
the walk passes between high banks clothed with rhododen- 
drons and beneath the back road by a small tunnel (8) till 
it emerges through a door in the wall on to the terrace at (9). 
From the southern arm of the terrace an ascent is made 
by steps and an inclined walk, to a raised mound (10), on the 
summit of which, twelve or fourteen feet above the general 
level, is a canopied seat, from which there is a view of the 
winter garden and the principal part of the pleasure grounds. 
A branch walk from this elevated point descends rapidly 
into a narrow natural valley, commencing at 24, through 
which the walk winds, the banks being covered with rocks 
and roots as receptacles for ferns and similar plants. At 1 2 
is a basin of water, in which is erected a very costly fountain, 
composed chiefly of bronze figures. The walk to the east 
and west of this basin has on either side of it a row of small 
groups of statuary on pedestals alternating with specimen 
evergreens; and the octagonal figure between 12 and 10 is 
furnished and surrounded by beds and specimens of the 
greatest possible variety of dwarf evergreens arranged as a 
winter garden, the wall at the back of the eastern terrace 
being also covered with evergreen climbers. At 13 and in a 
corresponding position at the center of the winter garden it 
is proposed to put large groups of bronze figures, on pedes- 



Practical Considerations 173 

tals, and the squares which will be noticed in the walks to 
the east and west of the winter garden contain vases on 
pedestals in their centers. The ground falls rapidly from 13 
towards the viaduct (4) and continues to descend on the 
northern side of this latter. At 14 is a drying ground, and 
18 a yard for receiving rubbish and for the gardener's use, 
there being also a small tool-shed between it and the terrace. 
The kitchen garden, garden yard, and sheds lying at a con- 
siderable distance, and being on very much higher ground, 
it is convenient to have the means of depositing rubbish and 
storing tools at this point. 

Several projecting parts or bastions, for the purpose of 
obtaining more variety, are made in the principal terrace, 
and the effect is further heightened by the introduction of 
vases into these. At 15 are two urn-shaped vases of Aber- 
deen granite or other dark material, while there are two 
sundials on white stone pedestals at 16 and a large white 
Warwick vase at 17. 

The walk between 7 and 8 is, as has been mentioned, cut 
through between high banks, the natural level there being 
twelve or fourteen feet above that of the flower garden. 
Flights of steps ascend from this walk to a detached space 
(19), which was arranged for a rosary. In the center of this 
plot is a basin of water, intended to be canopied by a wire 
temple for supporting climbing roses which would thus be 
reflected in the water. At 20 is a rustic summer house with 
an open porch from the principal walk to it, and this w r as to 
be the medium of exhibiting the freer growing and more 
rambling kinds of climbing roses which would scramble over 
both the sides and roof of the summer house. Two span- 
roofed glass houses (21 and 22) were to be placed at the 
sides of the garden, for receiving the more tender sorts of 
roses, the one house (22), which is nearest the back road 



174 Landscape Gardening 

being heated, and the other not. It was proposed to plant 
out the roses in these houses, and train climbers also to the 
rafters, and use the low external wall for supporting the 
dwarfer and more delicate varieties. The beds in the rosary 
are arranged to receive one family each, and space is allotted 
for standards and pole roses, the whole being screened from 
the back road and the park by a plantation, chiefly filled 
with evergreen shrubs. 

The ground at 23 rises rather abruptly towards the east 
and becomes an appropriate position for accommodating 
some of the finer members of the coniferous tribe, which, 
being scattered in groups on this grassy bank, show them- 
selves to advantage, and associate well with the winter gar- 
den. They are backed, as is the whole of the pleasure ground 
to the east and south, by an old wood of oaks, larches, and 
spruces. The small circles at 25 enclose two specimens of 
the Cedrus deodora, and there are masses of evergreens and 
a very picturesque old oak in the larger circle. 



CHAPTER VI 

Particular Objects 

Another step towards what is practical has now to be 
made. Several peculiar and more definite objects which 
could not with propriety be called general because they apply 
to special cases and less common circumstances have here 
to be discussed. And in thus traveling towards minuter 
matters, I cannot do better than begin with noticing the 
influence of little things on all questions of taste. 

i . Small Matters. — As most of the comforts and all the 
elegancies and refinements of life consist in attention to 
numerous small matters which are in themselves insignificant 
but which together compose a beautiful and agreeable whole, 
so the expression and character of a garden will be cultivated 
and tasteful or otherwise according as its minor features are 
well arranged and well executed. It is surprising how much 
a few trifling objects or circumstances may do in the way of 
imparting tone to a place. There is comparatively little 
difference between the mode in which a first-rate artist and an 
inferior one would work up a picture consisting of the same 
elements, but in that little what a world of meaning and 
expression might be conveyed! In laying out a garden, too, 
where much the same general features have to be dealt with, 
how much alike, yet how very distinct, would be the products 
of an untutored and unskillful operator and the creations of 
the studied, practiced, and delicately perceptive lover of art. 

A lame or imperfect curve; an artificial or abrupt connection 
of lines in reference to raised ground; deep and clumsy edg- 

i75 



176 Landscape Gardening 

ings to walks; the arrangement of plants in rows in irregular 
gardening, or the occurrence of three conspicuous specimens 
nearly in a row upon a lawn, where a decided line is not 
sought; plants that should be in a row, at all out of the line; 
specimens not placed exactly in the middle of a circle, or 
planted with an inclination to one side where they ought to 
be upright; wavy lines in near and parallel association with 
such as are straight; unmeaning and sudden inequalities of 
surface in a lawn ; — these are things which are of very slight 
moment, regarded individually, but of great and weighty 
influence upon the general character of a garden. 

Where a pleasing and refined expression is aimed at, then, 
there must be no fancied superiority to little things, no neglect 
of the elegancies of finish, no inattention to the most delicate 
propriety. And the less perfect and effective a garden is, the 
more will it be necessary to consider and polish the most 
minute of its parts; for, while striking and extraordinary 
things may pass off a few deficiencies without exciting obser- 
vation, such as are of an inferior and more commonplace 
stamp will need all the aid they can derive from minor details 
to preserve them from the lowest mediocrity. 

2. Mounds and banks are features with which a great deal 
may be accomplished in a garden, if they be properly treated. 
As frequently met with, they are the greatest possible eye- 
sores, altogether destitute of beauty and having no visible 
relation to the general surface. They are commonly either 
long straight ridges or banks, such as a hedger would throw 
up, only with the sides softened away; or are mere lumps of 
earth, pretty nearly resembling compost or manure heaps. 

The commonest use of mounds to-day in America, and 
doubtless the best use — if indeed not the only legitimate 
employment — ■ is to form a closed boundary about a garden 
or park. Such a raised border mound will nearly always be 



Particular Objects 177 

completely planted with heavy masses of trees and shrub- 
bery, so that the minute conformations of its design will not 
greatly affect the visible result. 

The great point to be attempted in mounds is some degree 
of naturalness and connection with the other parts of the 
ground. They should not at once show that they have been 
put in their place by art, and solely for some purpose of con- 
venience. But this they always will do when they rise sud- 
denly from the ordinary level and do not at all appear to 
belong to the rest of the ground. In nature, where swells 
and undulations of mere earth occur, without any rocky con- 
stituents, the greatest possible softness and extenuation are 
perceptible in the lower lines, which blend with the sur- 
rounding land in the most gradual manner. And even with 
rocky hills the contour lines are mostly gentle, except in a 
few rugged parts, and the base, by its natural formation 
or by the constant accumulation of soil and fragments washed 
from above, is usually carried out with a gracefully pro- 
longed sweep till it blends with the hollows or plains. 

To realize much of natural freedom and still more of beauty 
a raised bank or mound (always excepting a terrace bank of 
which I do not treat in this place) should be varied in its 
ground outline and have more or less undulation on its sur- 
face. A bank that is backed by a wall need be no exception 
unless it is to be covered with grass, when it should be man- 
aged as a terrace. Hard and straight lines never look well in 
contact with flowing ones, but if the bank is to be planted 
the wall will be hidden. 

For the outlines of a mound or bank intended as the 
groundwork of a plantation, the directions given a few pages 
back, for shaping masses of plantings, generally will apply 
just as forcibly here. They should be bold in some parts, 
always free, adapt themselves to the form of walks, or the 



178 Landscape Gardening 

intended shape of a lawn, and to the objects for which they 
are made, becoming broader where large and ugly things have 
to be concealed, and narrower where they are less urgently 
wanted. 

In shaping the outlines of any raised masses of earth, a 
correct and practiced eye will be the safest guide. Never- 
theless, it may be remarked that all the more prominent and 
higher points should also be the fullest, the roundest, and 
the steepest, while the retiring parts can be scooped out 
and sloped back into a kind of hollow basin. This is the 
shape almost universally found on the face of natural hills, 
where fullness and precipitancy are the common attendants 
of the more forward projections, but are seldom or never 
seen in the recesses. The reverse of all this in gardening is 
among the worst features that can be introduced. Con- 
cavity should be rigidly adhered to in all the receding por- 
tions of mounds. 

Perhaps the most influential characteristic of an artificial 
bank is its being well tailed out into the ground, and by a 
decided under curve. There can be no resemblance to nature 
without this. It gives the very crowning stroke of finish and 
grace. But as this point has been more than once previously 
insisted on it does not demand further pressing. 

Much of the success of any efforts to vary and undulate 
banks of earth will turn upon the way in which they are 
planted and the turf is brought up their faces. The boldest 
swells require to be as boldly planted, that is with the tallest 
description of plants admissible. The smaller elevations and 
the hollows can be planted with smaller varieties, thus mak- 
ing the entire range a series of undulations on the surface 
of the plants, as well as that of the ground, the first corre- 
sponding in a great degree to the last. Along the fronts, 
also, the plants should come much lower down on the fuller 



Particular Objects 179 

parts, so as to increase the effect of their fullness; and any 
weeping specimens, or such as naturally send forward their 
branches in a more horizontal direction, should be placed 
here with the same object. In the hollows or bays, on the 
contrary, the planting should retire nearly to the upper sur- 
face of the mound, the turf, of course, following the line of 
planting within a- foot or two in both cases. Grass may 
even be carried over the edge of the mound in some of the 
hollows, and so far across it as just to leave room for a few 
shrubs to cover the wall or fence that may happen to be 
behind. Or, if there be nothing to conceal, some of the 
lowest hollows may have a glade of grass carried entirely 
across them, which will greatly relieve and lighten a lengthy 
range. 

According to the several purposes for which mounds are 
used should be their ordinary treatment. If for covering 
boundary fences they ought to be almost entirely planted 
and should also be continuous. Where they are placed 
between parallel walks, to separate them from each other, if 
they are of any length, several of their hollows can be turfed 
through, leaving a low specimen plant or two on the grass 
irregularly in one or two of them. They may also have 
more of undulation than those of the former class. If a 
mound be made to furnish a good view of the garden or a 
prospect of the neighbouring country from its summit, great 
height should never be attempted in a small place, and it 
should, if possible, form part of a range that it may not 
appear too conspicuous and unconnected. The breadth must 
constantly bear some proportion to the height or it will seem 
glaringly artificial and a mere conceit. Besides it will be 
difficult to convey a walk to its summit unless there is some 
breadth to wind around. 

Such a mound as the last-named may be partially planted 



180 Landscape Gardening 

with close tufts or clusters of shrubs, to cover the walk, and 
shut in some parts of the view. A few low trees more spar- 
ingly dotted about will contribute to give it stability and 
character. The walk should of course be quite narrow, and 
may ascend by a zigzag route on one side only, or by curving 
round the entire face of the mound. It might appropriately 
be composed in its steeper parts of easy nights of rustic 
steps. 

3. Shapes of Trees. — Among the trees adapted to asso- 
ciate with different styles of buildings there are three distinct 
classes easily recognizable by the particular shape their heads 
and branches assume. The first and largest group produces 
roundish and clustering heads, when their full growth is 
attained. The oak, the ash, and the English elm are familiar 
examples. Another set much more thinly scattered send 
out their branches horizontally throughout their whole height. 
The cedar of Lebanon, the varieties of fir or spruce (not pine), 
the yew less perfectly, the larch, and the deciduous cypress 
in its usual state, will illustrate this section. The third tribe 
which has very few members consists of upright or fastigiate 
trees. The Lombardy poplar is the commonest instance, 
though the upright elm is another very good example. If 
such as have pointed or spiry heads be included, many of the 
second class will come within this also, — the firs especially. 
Larch, and several round-headed trees, in their younger state, 
before the upper branches get dense and spreading, will give 
a pretty clear idea of spiry-topped trees. 

Repton, in his Sketches and Hints on landscape garden- 
ing, lays it down as a general principle that round-headed 
trees harmonize best with Gothic forms of architecture, 
and trees of spiry shape with Grecian buildings, on the 
ground that the horizontal fines which prevail in the latter 
style, and the perpendicular in the former, are best exhibited 



Particular Objects 181 

and relieved by contrast with vegetable forms of an opposite 
character. Without questioning the soundness of the rule, 
which appears quite unexceptionable, it may be doubted 
whether, in the case of Grecian and Italian structures, at 
least, the appropriateness of the fir and cypress tribe is not 
the result of association. The cedar of Lebanon, the 
branches of which are purely horizontal, is the most magni- 
ficent of all accompaniments for any variety of Grecian archi- 
tecture, but is not at all suited for either of the forms of 
Gothic. And so perhaps the old ancestral elms and oaks in 
which many an English Gothic house is often embosomed 
may, by the commonness and antiquity of the usage, have 
given a propriety to the employment of that kind of tree in 
relation to all similar edifices. 

Still if it be admitted that certain descriptions of trees 
accord with the forms of certain architectural styles, it may 
be fairly assumed that the use of those trees in such situa- 
tions had its origin in their fitness, or supposed fitness, for 
the purpose; and that, though they may be peculiar to any 
given country in which the style of building to which they 
are now allied preponderates, or has at some former period 
prevailed, that very style may have been founded on its 
adaptation to the natural characteristics of the country, trees 
not being among the least significant of these. 

Possibly I may not be far wrong in accounting for the con- 
nection which has somehow sprung up between particular 
classes of trees and particular styles of buildings, by a refer- 
ence to the character of the leaves rather than the distinctive 
lines of the branches or heads. Light, thin, and feathery 
leaves characterize all the plants that look best when in con- 
tact with the varied class of Grecian structures, — the heavi- 
ness (or rather massiveness) and regularity of Grecian forms 
demanding some such contrast and mitigation. Gothic build- 



1 82 Landscape Gardening 

ings, on the other hand, already light and playful, full of 
variety, and abounding in small decorations, require more 
of the depth and breadth of foliage for which round-headed 
trees are conspicuous, to bring out their elegance, and impart 
at the same time a more substantial character. 

Trees can, without impropriety as to appearance, be placed 
nearer to a Gothic than a Grecian house. Gothic architec- 
ture is rather improved by a framework of trees; Grecian 
'only just tolerates them. With either style, however, the 
sudden dip of the building to connect with it a low wing, or 
the equally abrupt rise to form a tower, may often be softened 
with advantage by the introduction of a good and appro- 
priate tree in the angle, if this does not cover any window or 
other detail of consequence. In the same way a suitable 
lower plant or shrub or group of shrubbery in a deep angle 
of the building, or at a very bare corner of it, will sometimes 
divest it of a cold and naked appearance, and adorn rather 
than deface it. If one corner of a building stands higher 
above the level of the garden than the other, as will some- 
times be the case on sloping land, it will particularly require 
help from a good large shrub or group at the corner that 
rises most out of the earth, to give it the requisite balance. 

The high ends of buildings frequently demand some kind 
of plants to support them, and take off the hardness of their 
edges. No building should appear altogether naked and alone, 
but should form a constituent part of a landscape. If the 
lines therefore be not duly carried down in the building itself 
and blended with those of the ground — a thing which can 
very rarely be accomplished — the effect of connection should 
be attained by accompanying trees. Where a house is placed 
on a knoll, mound, or other kind of elevation, some such 
assistance becomes all the more essential. But the trees 
need not in all cases approach closely to the end of the build- 



Particular Objects 183 

ing, as enough of union of lines and balance of parts may 
be produced by placing them at a little distance from it. 

No subject perhaps is less studied by landscape gardeners, 
or occasions more alarm in the mind of an architect, than the 
necessity that exists for assisting the effect of houses by the 
felicitous introduction around them of a few trees or shrubs 
at the right points. Without some such help, a house might 
almost as well be in a town as in the country, and the most 
artistic combination of parts will fail to satisfy a tasteful 
observer, unless there blend with the building, at certain 
intervals, larger or smaller patches of green foliage. Even 
a mansion of the highest and most classical kind will not be 
exempted from this rule. 

4. Grouping. — To produce strong and striking effects in 
a garden there must be not merely a tolerably varied collec- 
tion of plants disposed so as to give variety and contrast, 
but groups of particular kinds should be planted in promi- 
nent places that occasional broader masses of a peculiar form 
or color may be obtained. From three to six or even eight 
specimens of some showy kinds may thus be planted in an 
irregular group at any jutting point in a bed or on some 
swell of a mound, and will create a very striking impression 
by their foliage or flowers. They should be placed near 
enough to each other to grow into a thicket without injury 
to any of the plants, that only one dense mass of heads and 
none of the individual stems may be seen, and that the effect 
may be more like what one immense specimen would yield. 

The effect is even better if plants of more modest and less 
conspicuous character be used in much larger masses. Spi- 
reas, dogwoods, viburnums, and the like (native plants espe- 
cially) can be used in decided profusion. This is one of the 
great discoveries of twentieth-century landscape architecture 
in America. 



i 84 Landscape Gardening 

For smaller plants and even for annuals the plan is fully 
as suitable. Every one is now aware what splendid displays 
are created by the various kinds of half-hardy plants with 
which gardens may be decorated in masses during summer. 
Some things in fact which would when solitary be almost 
contemptible acquire a marked showiness if collected into a 
group. And many annuals that are straggling and poor as 
individual objects become in broad patches (which is the 
best way of growing them) highly ornamental and handsome. 

5. The Study of Shadows. — When planted on the sunny 
side of a garden or of any part thereof, trees and shrubs pro- 
ject a variety of shadows, which an artist would rightly 
esteem some of the most decided beauties of a landscape. 
Light and shade is what an architect of sound feeling always 
aims to procure in the exterior of his building, and the plan 
that secures a due admixture of these will be most praised 
and admired, other things being equal. In a garden scene, 
too, although this is a matter very little considered, an 
immense deal of the beauty will depend upon the nice arrange- 
ment of parts to secure these. 

Open bursts of sunshine are not more essential, and are 
generally less effective, than shadows in a landscape. It is 
during showery weather, when gloom and sunlight are con- 
tinually succeeding each other, and nature is shrouded in 
dullness one moment, but brilliantly illuminated the next — 
when the outlines and motion of the clouds are faithfully 
pictured on the earth as they hurriedly sweep over hill and 
valley — that beautiful scenery becomes far more lovely and 
pleasing. And there must be a compounding of the same 
elements of light and shade in a garden to give it its last 
finish. 

It will, however, be chiefly on the west and southwest 
sides of a place that the shadows will be most interesting. 



Particular Objects 185 

The sun is too high in the heavens at midday to occasion 
any but the smallest shadows, and those only to the very 
tallest trees. It is towards evening, when the stillness and 
softness of the air, or the glory of the descending sun, invite 
to a closer communion with nature, that shadows will be 
most conspicuous and most rapidly changing. The lines or 
grouping of western- and southwestern plantations should 
be particularly arranged with reference to their shadows, 
that these may be varied, but pleasingly rounded, and softly 
mingled. And as the shade from everything becomes exag- 
gerated in its dimensions the lower the sun descends, there 
will be the more necessity that the upper lines of the planta- 
tions under notice shall be gentle, elegant, and finished, while 
the plants should rarely be very large, or their shade will 
cover the whole garden towards evening. If the full light 
of the sinking sun can be let in uninterruptedly through two 
or three openings on to the lawn, the result will be a more 
checkered and therefore a more beautiful one. There may 
be a large amount of pleasure drawn from this source by a 
devoted student. 

Other sides of a place, though of less consequence in regard 
to shadows, will not be unproductive of them. On the south 
margin it must be a pretty high tree that will produce any 
very manifest effect, and large trees can be very little tol- 
erated in that quarter. More than two or three, at distant 
intervals, would be decidedly undesirable. Further east a 
little may be done, but it must be set about cautiously for 
fear of creating injurious shade. M the specimens and 
groups on a lawn will, at some period of the day, give forth 
partial shadows, and this will be one of the advantages of 
varying their outlines and arrangement. As a series of only 
little patches of light and shade would be wearisome and 
distressing to the eye, this shows the necessity of having a 



1 86 Landscape Gardening 

good open glade of lawn, entirely free from plants, in another 
and vivid light. 

6. Climbing Plants. — To furnish the means of growing 
to perfection the very charming tribe of climbing plants, 
beyond the always objectionable mode of training them to 
poles, there will occasionally be places in a garden where a 
small covered way, formed of wooden or wire trellis, can be 
erected and rendered both ornamental in itself and fitted for 
supporting a few choice roses, etc. Such an object may either 
be attached to the front of a wall, and be open only at one 
side, having a close roof, when it will be a good means of 
disguising a blank wall and, if attached to the house at one 
end, will make a dry and agreeable winter promenade. Or it 
may be in the shape of an arch, trellised all over and capable 
of sustaining plants on its entire surface. It may serve as 
a connecting link between the pleasure grounds and the 
kitchen garden, or from the general garden into any retired 
rosary, or flower garden, or other separate part, or even over 
one of the common walks, where the shrubs close in upon it 
on either side, and it will not be seen from the house. An 
arch or pergola of this kind will be very useful and pleasing. 
Wire is the most durable and wood the most effective mate- 
rial for composing it, and may be worked into any shape. 
It will possess more style if, in addition to the simple arch, 
it assume without heaviness or intricacy some rather archi- 
tectural form, in accordance with the character of the house. 

Anything in the form of a veranda, or an external corridor 
put in the recess of a house, would furnish another means of 
growing the better sorts of climbers; and would likewise, 
especially in very hilly or picturesque localities, or with refer- 
ence to any house that partakes of a cottage character, or that 
would admit of such an accessory, assist materially in improv- 
ing the outline and in creating effective masses of shadow. 



Particular Objects 187 

If made sufficiently lofty, too, such verandas need not at all 
interfere with the admission of light to the windows of the 
house, and in summer, when the climbers would be in fuller 
foliage and more diffuse in their growth, the little extra shade 
they would occasion would be grateful rather than annoying. 

For the center of a rosary or secluded flower garden, or in 
the middle or one corner of any formed flower garden that 
does not immediately adjoin the house, or at the end of a 
straight walk in some situations, a small ornamental temple 
or summer house, for training climbers upon, and supplying 
a summer arbor, will sometimes be a very pretty and pleas- 
ant feature in a garden. It should however be chaste in 
design and not at all elaborately decorated, being rather of a 
good general shape than ornate in the details of the pattern. 

7. Flower Beds in Winter. — Lest the occurrence of a 
number of empty beds on a lawn or in a flower garden, where 
the system of massing summer plants is adopted, should 
impart to a place a bare and desolate aspect during winter, 
a store of the lower kinds of evergreens should be kept in 
pots and plunged in some part of the kitchen garden or in 
any reserved corner through the summer, to be transferred 
to the flower beds directly their gayer furniture has been 
cleared away in autumn. Such a plan is less troublesome 
than it appears to be, for if the plants be kept constantly 
in pots, summer and winter, and merely plunged in the 
ground, a simple repotting once a year, with an occasional 
watering in only the very driest summer weather, will be all 
the attention they want for three or four years, when they 
will require renewing by propagation. 

The fittest kinds for the office will be several dwarf heaths, 
particularly the Erica carnea, Cotoneaster microphylla, Berbe- 
ris aquifolium, Menziesia poll [folia, Andromeda floribunda, the 
common dwarf juniper, small spruces, arbor vitaes and retinis- 



1 88 Landscape Gardening 

poras. By a judicious choice and variation of these, put- 
ting one sort only to a bed, some amount of verdure and 
liveliness will be produced during winter, at a cost of labor 
and materials which are entirely insignificant in comparison 
with the effect realized. The plants should be potted in 
rather a poor soil, lest they grow too luxuriant and send 
their roots too far beyond the pots. 

8. Shady Spots. — Beneath trees and shrubs which are 
so dense or create such a thick shade that grass will not live, 
and has to be renewed every year, a simple and convenient 
plan of carpeting the ground is to plant it with patches of 
periwinkles or English ivy where the latter will thrive. Bare 
earth, which does not even produce weeds, and on which, in 
consequence of the number and strength of the roots from 
trees, a sufficient undergrowth of shrubs cannot be obtained, 
has an exceedingly cold and poor appearance, and tends to 
make a place look smaller. English ivy or the larger peri- 
winkles form a rich and luxuriant carpet in such places. 
But these dwarf er sorts of undergrowth are principally 
adapted for such plantations as are nearer the outside of a 
place and those which may run along the sides of a shrub- 
bery walk in a field, and they must be well watered for a 
year or two after planting. 

9. Treatment of Hedges. — Where hedgerows are em- 
ployed as a boundary fence, or are used inside a wall or pal- 
ing to conceal it from view, their ordinary unsightliness and 
hardness of line may be very greatly relieved by a little 
attention to pruning and by fronting them here and there 
with a few scattered bushes of the same or other kinds. In 
assuming that a hedge is unsightly, however, I would not 
be misunderstood. When perfectly developed, furnished, 
and nicely trimmed, a good hedge is rather a beautiful than 
an ugly thing in itself; but, as I have before alleged, no 



Particular Objects 189 

description of fence conveys an agreeable idea, and a fence 
that is formal becomes all the more distinct, setting a con- 
spicuous limitation to a place, and interfering with or cutting 
off the landscape beyond. The more effectually a boundary 
line is disguised therefore, the greater latitude of dimensions 
will be attained. 

One way of dressing a hedge so as to destroy its regularity 
of line is, after it has become sufficiently strong and sturdy, 
to prune out individual branches only, and not cut it to a 
uniform height. Several of the plants may, in places, have 
their heads individually cut down without destroying the 
smaller spray, while in other parts, at unequal intervals, only 
one, two, or three heads need be cut off. By carrying out 

®>* © 

^> & 

m 

Fig. 54. How to Manage a Hedge. 

this plan with the utmost irregularity, and letting some of 
the bushes grow up more wildly, a ragged, broken, and more 
natural looking line may be produced; and this is particu- 
larly important where in the case of a high hedge it rises 
above the line of the horizon or stands across a view that is 
obtained into the open country. 

But however tastefully a hedge may be cut, its ground line 
will still remain a straight one, and to vary this a few tufts 
of bushes may be scattered at different distances and in 
different numbers along its front, as in fig. 54, and never 
be pruned at all. Of course such plants should be put only 
where the hedge behind them has been left comparatively 
unpruned, and not opposite the pruned parts. In this man- 
ner, by the exercise of a little judgment in disposing and 




190 Landscape Gardening 

diversifying the groups, the harsh line of a hedge may be 
nearly hidden. A wall or close paling, where there is no 
hedge, might be similarly darkened and concealed by the 
same means, taking care to prune down the plants partially 
and irregularly at points where, after they acquire their full 
size, they would intercept the view. The propriety of using 
common thorns and common hollies jointly for this purpose 
will be seen when it is remembered that they are both indige- 
nous plants, that both grow naturally into irregular and pic- 
turesque shapes, and that both, when quite established, are 
sturdy and prickly enough to deter cattle from attacking 
them. 

One of the chief advantages of the plan is, that though 
the plants thus used will require protection from cattle till 
they have thoroughly grown, they may subsequently be left 
entirely unprotected. 

10. Shelter Plantings. — New plantations will often call 
for a greater or less amount of temporary shelter, as they 
may happen to be in any degree exposed, or as the plants in 
them may want what is usually styled "nursing." In some 
exposed districts a few coarse and rapid-growing kinds, 
towering above the mass of the plantation, will catch and 
break the power of the breeze, and if in foliage, preserve 
the lower and better sorts wholly unharmed. Several species 
of poplar and willow are found to be the most valuable of 
such nurses, and their mean appearance may be well endured 
for a time, in consideration of their services. They should 
be gradually cut out as they become less needed, and entirely 
destroyed as "soon as they have thoroughly done their work. 

Poplars, maples, and Norway spruces will, with a few 
others, be useful in more inland places, when scattered among 
the better kinds temporarily, to give them a good start. An 
ornamental tree or plant, so far from being injured by having 



Particular Objects 191 

rather near and common neighbors for three or four years, 
is thereby aided in making an energetic and more speedy 
growth; and if the nurses are not placed too close to the per- 
manent plants and are kept within due bounds they will 
assuredly be beneficial in helping forward the plantation, and 
can be taken up or cut out at any time. 

Exactly the same principle will apply to shrubs, among the 
best of which privet, common laurel, common holly, etc., 
may be found of the greatest use in encouraging them 
onward for a few years, though greater care will be requisite 
here to hinder the inferior sorts from trespassing on their 
more aristocratic companions, otherwise they may do them 
irreparable mischief. 

In those parts of the country where the prevalence of par- 
ticular winds at certain seasons renders special shelter for 
newly planted shrubs indispensable, this should be afforded 
on the like basis to that previously recommended for general 
protection. Light and air must not be excluded. And the 
materials of shelter should be placed on one or two sides 
only, shifting them about as the wind may blow injuriously 
from any quarter. Such materials, also, as are partially 
open and not perfectly impervious will be preferable, as 
staying, and not merely turning, the violence of the wind. 
Large spruce or pine branches stuck in the ground at a short 
distance from the plants to be protected, or hurdles interlaced 
with the same or with reeds or laths and placed about a 
yard from the plants, will afford enough of shelter to them 
without diminishing their hardihood. If necessary the same 
kind of screen can be renewed in succeeding years. 

11. Edgings for Walks maybe exceedingly various, but 
there are very few indeed that will give lasting satisfaction. 
Grass is almost the only one that can be altogether com- 
mended for pleasure gardens; and it is one which, if carefully 



192 Landscape Gardening 

laid and diligently kept, will be sure to please, for it has a 
good color, smoothness, regularity, durableness when not 
under trees, and harmony with both the architectural and 
the vegetable constituents of a garden. It furnishes, like- 
wise, the best ground tint for setting off the colors of 
flowers, as in a flower garden. As an edging, it should inva- 
riably be flat, and at an equal height (not more than half an 
inch) above the surface of the walk at its margin, with about 
an inch or even two in depth along the inner line, next the 
bed or border, to allow for the washing down of the soil 
towards it. It must not be too narrow or it will be difficult 
to keep cut and the sides will be likely to crumble away. 

Box edgings are troublesome, liable to great irregularities, 
apt to harbor insects, not hardy in most parts of the United 
States, and suitable merely for quaint figures and old-fash- 
ioned geometrical designs. They are the proper accompani- 
ments of parterres and small flower gardens that are laid out 
with numerous narrow gravel walks. Rough stone, bricks, 
thick slates, and tiles may make strong and durable edgings 
for kitchen gardens. The smaller periwinkle, kept in due 
limits, is useful as an edging under trees; as is the English ivy. 
The Cotoneaster microphylla is likewise suitable, whether on 
level ground or among rocks, and will bear a great deal of 
trimming. 

The most valuable requisites in an edging are evenness, 
diminutiveness or capability of being regularly trimmed, 
quietness of appearance or harmony with whatever is behind 
it, and permanence. In each of these respects grass will, in 
nearly all circumstances except in the kitchen garden, have 
the advantage. Where it is least in character is immediately 
alongside of any rocky surface. There the common heath, 
undressed, would be most expressive and characteristic. 
Of late years, it has become the fashion in many cases to 



Particular Objects 193 

put edgings to beds, whether these be filled with dwarf shrubs 
or with flowers. In respect to beds arranged formally, and 
occupied with dwarf shrubs, as in regular winter gardens or 
in peculiar positions on lawns, edgings of some dwarfer shrub 
than the one employed in the center of each may help to 
define the beds more clearly, to impart an additional air of 
neatness, and to secure greater contrast and variety. 

For flower beds, again, the same practice, where a plant of 
a dwarfer and compacter habit is used as the edging, may be 
equally suitable; and if a decided change of color be thus 
introduced the effect may become even brilliant. But the 
system requires to be pursued with judgment and caution, 
and in reference more to individual beds or small groups 
than to a regular flower garden. 

A degree of quaintness and an appearance of antiquity 
are sometimes attained by surrounding large flower beds on 
lawns with an edging of some shrub or tree, and keeping this 
duly clipped. I have seen even the common oak and the 
Turkey oak thus applied and kept at the height of about 
nine inches, presenting a dense mass of leaves in the summer 
season. 

As a rule, all sorts of freak edgings are to be eschewed, as, 
for example, the wire edgings in vogue fifty years ago, or 
edgings of whitewashed stones, or of bricks standing uncer- 
tainly on their corners. One occasionally sees flower beds 
edged with telephone insulators, inverted beer bottles, or 
other convenient debris, which no matter how curious and 
striking can hardly be said to be ornamental or in good 
taste. 



CHAPTER VII 

Special Features 

If a place be separated into its constituent elements, it will 
be seen to consist not only of a number of objects, but to 
comprise at least a few individual departments that have 
features of their own and demand peculiar treatment. 
Should any of these not be very important in point of extent, 
much of what is lacking in dimensions may be made up by 
extreme attention to the disposal and regulation of every 
part, that if there be no palpable merit there may be perfect 
freedom from fault. 

i. Fields. — To make anything of a park or field, it must 
be managed simply as if it were a park, on however diminu- 
tive a scale. Its size will not materially affect the question of 
design, for the largest field or park would only contain similar 
features much more boldly carried out. 

In the arrangement and furnishing of a park the same 
principles are to be observed as in the treatment of a garden, 
only in a much rougher and bolder way. There should be 
breadth of glades, with planting chiefly at the margins, dis- 
posed in masses or groups, with openings between, and fronted 
by occasional single specimens. Bareness and baldness will 
be as faulty as on a lawn. The attempt to save a few yards 
of ground for pasture, at the expense of all richness of cloth- 
ing or variety of aspect, will be but a shortsighted policy. 

Around the sides of parks or paddocks, any smaller planta- 
tions may be composed of a coarser and commoner descrip- 
tion of plants than those used in the garden, and evergreens 

194 



Special Features 195 

need not be so abundant. The common oaks, elms, and 
chestnuts will be the most appropriate of these, with any 
other indigenous species common to the locality. Such plan- 
tations should always be pretty dense, with a lower growth 
of the commoner shrubs to give richness, massiveness, and 
depth. 

Very showy or very rare and exotic plants will be entirely 
out of character as specimens in such a park. Ornamental 
trees that are not conspicuously peculiar may be admitted, 
though not liberally, and scarcely at all if they flower much. 
White-blooming thorns or dogwoods will be very suitable, 
but not scarlet ones, unless in the close neighborhood of 
the garden, and double-blossomed ones on no account. 
Shrubs will be wholly improper on the grass, except groups 
where they will almost adjoin a plantation. 

Where bushes exist in a park, they should on no account 
be trimmed at the base, which would make them look too 
much like trees; but their branches should be allowed to 
spread freely down to the ground, that the eye, in glancing 
over a series of glades, may have to travel round the bushes, 
and that thus a more varied and inviting range of views may 
be offered from different points. Bushes are sometimes very 
useful also when sparingly scattered about groups of trees, 
in carrying their outlines better to the ground and softening 
away everything like abruptness or want of pliancy. 

The kinds of ornamental trees that are most admissible into 
private parks in America are the elm, maples, chestnut, and 
all kinds of oaks. In the middle states poplars are some- 
times quite in place. Where evergreens are native they may 
also be freely used, especially pines and spruces. 

To form and plant a park effectively requires almost greater 
care and attention than designing a garden, inasmuch as the 
trees used are of a grander character than the plants employed 



196 Landscape Gardening 

in a garden, and if placed improperly become more offensive 
and obstructive. An error into which the unpracticed com- 
monly fall is in making the whole spotty by the too liberal 
insertion of single trees, or by needless interruptions to the 
breadth and continuity of glades. The glades are of the very 
last importance, and should from the house, the drive, and 
the chief walks in the pleasure grounds, be quite unmistak- 
able and decided, although their edges must, like those of 
the glades in the garden, be irregularly furnished. Of course 
the glades in the pleasure grounds and those in the park 
should unite, and continue expanding in the latter till they 
reach the boundary, where by means of a low fence or of 
only small bushes they must be carried forward into the 
more remote distance. 

Single trees in a park, however beautiful they may be as 
individual specimens, ought not to be very freely multiplied, 
and should rather as a rule attach themselves as offshoots 
to clumps and groups than stand entirely alone. It is masses 
of trees, varying in number from two to twelve or fifteen, and 
exhibiting the most irregular arrangements and combinations, 
that are chiefly suitable for parks. Occasionally seven or 
eight trees of the same kind as the weeping birch, planted 
near to each other, will, when the heads are thrust out by 
the expansion of the interior trees, cause the stems to become 
crooked and to assume the most picturesque outlines. Such 
a group would have the happiest effect on the edge of a rough 
slope or on comparatively broken ground. 

In shaping the land, too, while a certain amount of smooth- 
ness and ease is desirable in the ground lines where they 
approximate to a garden, a greater degree of roughness and 
irregularity should be preferred towards the outer boundaries 
of the park, thus assisting to render the transition from the 
garden to the land beyond as gradual and as gentle as possible. 



Special Features 197 

It is principally of consequence to regard a park as a link 
between the dressed parts of a garden and the wilder and 
freer characteristics of nature. In its furniture, therefore, it 
should resemble the garden about the parts where they unite, 
and the more general features of the country towards its 
outer edges. It must by no means be a detached and iso- 
lated thing. Nothing in nature is so. The plantations at 
the bottom of the garden may decidedly run into those of the 
park or field, and be extended into it as far as comports with 
obtaining proper views from the house. 

Indeed the garden and the mere field can be yet further 
united by the employment of a shrubbery walk round the 
whole or a portion of the latter. Notwithstanding the charge 
of affectation so freely imputed to walks of this kind, because 
they skirt the actual boundary of a small place, it must be 
averred that they are very useful in affording exercise within 
the private domain, and in presenting the garden, house, and 
exterior country in more varied aspects. In relation to even 
a large park, a walk may often appropriately be carried for 
some distance along one or more of its sides, or be directed 
through some of its woods, especially where any picturesque 
natural elements, such as rocks, broken ground, or steep 
banks exist, or where the woods adjoin and furnish a sheet 
of ornamental water. 

2. Shrubbery Walks. — A shrubbery walk should be in 
all respects more simple than the garden in point of art. 
The curves should be less studied, the margins slightly 
rougher, and the material of an inferior and less polished 
kind. The keeping also should be decidedly less perfect, 
the dress and finish of the garden being quite undesirable 
here. ■ As much shade and shelter as possible should be 
attained in such a walk, but it must not be without open 
parts for sunshine and views. Here and there a seat may 



198 Landscape Gardening 

be placed for rest or for enjoying a prospect, and clusters of 
common roses, or particularly sweet-scented flowers, or even 
patches of strawberry plants, may occasionally be put in to 
attract persons to use it. Fruit trees may often be used in 
its plantations for the same purpose. Of course, like the 
garden walks, it should break away from the boundary fence 
as freely and irregularly as the space will permit; and it is 
by no means necessary that the plantation be continuous, as 
the walk may pass out into the open field or park in a few 
parts for variety. 

Advantage should be taken of any peculiarities in shrub- 
bery walks that may be favorable to the cultivation of par- 
ticular tribes of plants, that the walk may by such means be 
rendered more interesting. Indeed a walk of this descrip- 
tion, where the locality allows, may be made into a small 
arboretum, in so far as one or more families of plants is con- 
cerned, except that the specimens should not all stand apart 
and alone, but ba dispersed through the fronts of the ordinary 
plantations and now and then brought together into groups. 
It might frequently happen in such a walk, too, that a well- 
contrived little episode, such as would be yielded by convert- 
ing a small dell or hollow into a rockery or a fern garden, 
could be easily accomplished. Or a pond for the use of 
aquatic birds or for the growth of rare water plants might 
be brought into notice. Or a spot by the side of a shrubbery 
walk might be selected where a patch might be devoted to 
wild natural vegetation in which briers, brambles, thorns, 
honeysuckles, clematis, and other picturesque indigenous 
plants could be allowed to assume their native luxuriance 
and tangle together in unrestrained profusion. 

In any case, the sides of the shrubbery walk and the 
ground beneath its plantations can always be appropriated 
to the growth of such hardy herbaceous plants as violets, 



Special Features 199 



snowdrops, squills, primroses, lychnis, anemones, narcissus, 
crocus, harebells, and other showy or early flowering species, 
which can readily be induced to carpet the ground in suffi- 
cient masses to render their effect conspicuous and even 
striking. Ferns in all their elegant variety may also some- 
times find a congenial home by the sides of streams or on 
shelving banks that are brought within the range of the 
shrubbery walk. 

To enliven a park or a field, and give life and motion to a 
home scene, sheep and cows may be freely admitted. Sheep 
of the larger and better breeds are always the most quiet, 
and crop the grass most evenly, and are less disposed to 
injure shrubs and trees, such as have been reared in hilly 
or poor districts being exceedingly wild and objectionable. 
Horses and colts are particularly mischievous where they can 
reach the branches of trees, and should therefore generally 
be kept out. Deer are similarly inclined to damage trees, 
and when they are admitted will always require extra fenc- 
ing to keep them from young trees and to prevent them 
from straying. 

3. Concrete Examples. — From the limited size of these 
pages it is obviously impossible to illustrate the treatment 
of parks of any magnitude. But two or three designs, em- 
bodying some of the more essential constituents, may now 
be given. The first I shall present — necessarily on a very 
small scale — is a plan of the grounds and what may be 
called the home park of a place which I arranged for Charles 
Longman, Esq. It is named Shendish, and is between 
Heme! Hempstead and King's Langley, in Hertfordshire. 
The house and homestead have been erected on the sum- 
mit of a hill, where there was an excellent platform for the 
purpose, and whence the ground descends in a convex form, 
gently at first but afterwards more abruptly, till it falls into 



200 Landscape Gardening 

a valley on all sides. Unhappily the estate had been sadly 
denuded of trees by former owners and a good deal of plant- 
ing has therefore become requisite. The position, however, 
commands an extensive variety of wooded undulations, both 
in the middle ground and the distance, and the great desider- 
atum was therefore to create within and in the neighborhood 
of the pleasure gardens a suitable and sufficient foreground. 

The engraving (fig. 55) will show pretty clearly the way in 
which this has been accomplished. The house is approached 
from the northeast by a constantly ascending drive of about 
half a mile in length, which, after crossing the railway by a 
characteristic bridge, winds up a natural hollow with the 
undulating slopes of the park on either side, till it passes 
over a sunk public footpath by another appropriate bridge 
(30) and enters what I have termed the home pasture (29), 
traversing which, it soon after reaches the enclosed pleasure 
grounds and thus arrives at the house. A branch to the 
west first separates from it and skirts the home pasture on its 
way to the farm buildings. There is a subordinate drive 
from the opposite direction (24) which conducts to the 
house by way of the farm road and which is chiefly used for 
farming purposes. 

The home pasture consists of an area of about twenty 
acres and is detached or fenced off from the rest of the place, 
partly for grazing purposes but mainly because it is bounded 
to the north and east by a public footpath and has arable land 
beyond it to the southeast and the southwest. The foot- 
path which comes from a northwesterly direction formerly 
crossed the middle of what is now the home pasture in a line 
which would be nearly due south. There being two branches 
to the path, however, it was easy to divert it into the line 32; 
and by sinking it five feet and putting a wall (31) on the 
side next the home pasture a capital sunk fence has been 



Special Features 



20I 




Fig- 55- Plan of a Home Park. 



202 Landscape Gardening 

obtained for the latter, and the persons using the footpath 
are not observed from the house. The ground being well 
sloped away from the path on the outer side, it is open and 
cheerful, and being well drained and formed, is really a boon 
to the public as compared with an ordinary field path. 

On the west side of the carriage drive, between it and the 
farm road, there is a cluster of old elm trees, and there are 
some old sycamores and elms to the east of the drive, near 
the figures 29. All the plantations and groups had to be 
newly made. In one of the plantations near the sunk wall, 
northeastward from the house, we may enter a bridle road 
between the home pasture and the footpath. 

At 23 the existence of an old chalkpit is made to conduce 
to the variety in the place by carrying a walk to it from the 
pleasure grounds and extending this walk around and across 
the excavation. In the latter case the lines of walk will be 
more broken and irregular than it was possible to show on 
the plan, and the whole is made the medium of displaying 
rugged masses of natural vegetation, of which the wild clem- 
atis (common here) will be a conspicuous feature. 

A great deal of earthwork has been executed, both in the 
pleasure grounds and the home pasture, by reducing in some 
parts and raising in others to assimilate the general form of 
the land to that which is beyond and produce an easy but 
positive convexity of shape without any undulations or dips. 
From the conformation of the surrounding country this 
arrangement became a matter of artistic necessity, without 
which the whole would have appeared trifling and artificial. 

4. The Flower Garden. — The flower garden should be 
situated on the warmest and most private side of the house, 
and fronting the drawing-room windows. Or the flowers 
may be placed in a sheltered and sunny corner of the pleas- 
ure grounds, where a wall at the back will keep them warm 




Plate XIII. Vista across a Pond — Private Estate in Georgia. 
Designed by Warren U. Manning. 



Special Features 203 

by protecting them and reflecting the sun's heat as well as 
make them more secluded. The same situation will furnish 
the opportunity of growing tender climbers. 

The beds of a flower garden should be symmetrical and fit 
nicely into each other. All elaborate figures and scrolls are 
generally undesirable, as they tend to multiply work and 
cannot be so effectively planted. Beds of simple shape, in 
which no very acute angles occur, will be the easiest to keep 
in order, and will exhibit a good arrangement of plants best. 
Flower beds ought never to be large, or it will be incon- 
venient to attend to them; nor should the openings between 
them be very narrow, lest they become inaccessible, or the 
plants in each bed be insufficiently separated from those in 
the others. Grass evenly laid in tolerably broad strips 
constitutes the most effective division between flower beds, 
as it sets off the colors of flowers best and gives greater 
unity and breadth to the whole. Gravel, with box or stone 
edgings to the beds, will not be unsuitable for some styles of 
flower garden, especially where the beds are large, or com- 
plex, or intended to be filled with mixed plants. 

The modern style in America has reached pronounced con- 
clusions with respect to the use of flowers and flower beds in 
landscape gardening. It is very generally held that in the 
free and natural style of gardening flowers are to be used in 
only two ways: first, where they can be naturalized in con- 
siderable masses, as may be done with narcissus and crocus; 
or, second, where they can be massed in irregular flower 
borders. These borders may contain either hardy perennials 
or hardy annuals, or both in judicious combinations. The 
addition of tender greenhouse species to these informal bor- 
ders is likely to give unhappy results, as palms, camellias, 
cinerarias, or even geraniums, will always show their artificial 
origin and thus contradict the naturalness of the landscape 



204 Landscape Gardening 

effect. In other words, they offer continual opposition to the 
primary artistic motive of the garden. 

In many private parks where space and soil conditions 
permit there may be arranged suitable ' wild gardens," 
which consist simply of collections of hardy flowering plants 
naturalized in place. Unless such a wild garden be designed 
with much skill, however, and unless it be kept with equal 
taste, it will hardly prove a success. 

On most private places, where the grounds are designed 
in the natural style, and where flowers are wanted in con- 
siderable quantities, especially for cutting, it is best to grow 
them in a separate enclosed garden. This garden will be 
set off and managed precisely as the fruit or vegetable gar- 
den. By this means the flower garden is saved from en- 
croaching on the artistic unity of the place, while at the 
same time the flowers themselves receive a more suitable 
culture and give a much more satisfactory harvest. 

On the other hand, when we have to deal with a formal 
or Italian garden, the design will often be filled out to best 
advantage by the introduction of flower beds. These will be 
designed in such sizes and forms as will best fit into the 
general structure of the main design. 

Figure 56 includes the flower garden and part of the 
pleasure grounds which I had executed for Samuel Job, 'Esq. „ 
Holmefield, Aigburth, near Liverpool. A portion of the 
house is shown. At 1 is a bay window to a corridor, the 
dining-room, drawing-room, and library being on the south- 
west front. A terrace walk (2) extends along the southwest 
and southeast sides of the house, and is joined to the lawn 
by a grass bank (3) four feet deep. There is a straight walk 
direct from the terrace to the flower garden, the latter being 
quite flat, of a circular figure, open to the sun and the field 
on the east, south, and southwest sides, and sheltered from 



Special Features 



205 




SCALE OF FEET 
■10 10 80 30 40 50 00 70 80 00 100 

Fig. 56. Design of Residence Grounds. 



2o6 



Landscape Gardening 



the northwest by the house, and from the north and north- 
east by masses of trees and evergreens, though a glade to the 
extreme north admits a view of a very pleasing little hollow 
in the pleasure grounds. 

Small vases on pedestals (4) alternate with circular flower 
beds on either side of the walk to the flower garden and with 
similar beds round the margin of the large circle, 5 being 
reserved for a basin of water, which might also receive a 
small fountain. The names of the specimen plants, pointed 
out by figures, may possibly interest some reader and are 
therefore inserted. 



6. 


Andromeda floribunda. 


23- 


A ucicba japonica. 


7- 


Spircra Lindleyana. 


24. 


Narrow-leaved Alaternus. 


8. 


Daphne pontica. 


25- 


Double Pink Thorn. 


9- 


Hybrid Rhododendron. 


26. 


Hodgins's Holly. 


10. 


Cotoneaster micro phylla. 


27. 


Standard Weeping Cherry 


11. 


Wei gel a rosea. 


28. 


Cryptomcria japonica. 


12. 


Tree Ivy. 


29. 


Silver-blotched Holly. 


13- 


Weeping Elm. 


3°- 


Ilex marginata. 


14. 


Yucca gloriosa. 


3i- 


Pcmettya mucronata. 


IS- 


Yellow-berried Holly. 


2,2- 


Gaultheria shall on. 


16. 


Ribes sanguineum. 


33- 


Rhododendron. 


17- 


Ilex balearica. 


34- 


Variegated Prickly Holly. 


18. 


Erica mult i flora. 


35- 


Berbcris aquifolium. 


19. 


Scarlet Thorn. 


36. 


Ilex Madeirensis. 


20. 


Golden Holly. 


37- 


Araucaria imbricata. 


21. 


Cedrns deodora. 


38. 


Double Furze. 


22. 


Irish Yews. 


39- 


Cuprcssus macrocarpa. 



Holmefield contains about twenty-four acres and is agree- 
ably situated in the Aigburth valley, on a comparatively pri- 
vate road, and with views of the bolder parts of the Welsh 
hills to the southwest. 

For a secluded flower garden, apart from the ordinary lawn 
and either enclosed by shrubs or taken out of the north side 
of a kitchen garden that is not walled in, the design, fig. 57, 



Special Features 207 




10 5 



SCALE OF FEET. 
10 20 



30 



40 



Fig. 57. A Secluded Flower Garden. 



208 Landscape Gardening 

may possess recommendations. It was made for James Bar- 
ratt, Esq., of Lymm Hall, near Warrington, England. 

Lymm Hall is an ancient Elizabethan edifice partially sur- 
rounded by an old moat with rising ground in the pleasure 
garden and field on the south side. A little to the eastward of 
the south front a dense mass of hollies and other evergreens 
screens off the kitchen garden, and it is on the south side of 
this plantation, attached to the kitchen garden, that the 
flower garden now under notice has been made. It is con- 
nected with the lawn by a grass path through the screen of 
evergreens; and this grass path (13) passes up the middle of 
the flower garden, being terminated by a summerhouse (1) 
which is covered with climbing roses. The rest of the walks 
are of gravel and have box edgings, differing in this respect 
from any that I have yet described. 

At 2 there are garden seats canopied and enclosed with 
ivy, which is grown on a wooden trellis. In the borders (3) , 
which are devoted to roses, there are at regular intervals 
alternate specimens of standard and climbing roses, the latter 
being represented by the larger dots, and being trained to 
poles, and to chains hanging between these, in the form of 
festoons. In the circles (4) are specimens of a very dwarf 
and compact variety of the common juniper, while fuchsias 
occupy the other circles, marked 5. To the beds (6) were 
assigned different varieties of verbena, with one sort in each ; 
but they could of course be filled with other kinds of plants 
that are sufficiently dwarf. The whole of the beds (7) ,or two- 
thirds of them, were also intended for mixed flowers, though 
they could all, if desired, be retained for summer flowers, 
with one sort to a bed. The border (8) is for. violets and 
other spring-flowering plants, and the opposite border (13) 
for lilies of the valley and such things as prefer more shade. 
There is a border strewn with rocks at 10, for alpine plants, 



Special Features 209 

small trailing shrubs, etc. A yew hedge about five feet high 
(n) encloses the garden at the east and west sides, and on 
the south (12) is a sweetbrier hedge, with standard roses 
in it at regular intervals. 

5. Rockeries and Fern Gardens. — Persons who have a 
fancy for a rock or fern garden will do well to keep it some- 
where in the background and not in sight from the windows of 
the house or the principal parts of the lawn. It may be made 
very interesting if thus secluded, and may be approached from 
the main walk of the garden through a rustic arch mantled 
with climbers or in some similar and convenient manner. 
Masses of rockery may even be placed fronting the chief line 
of walk, at some distance from the house, where a good dense 
screen of planting can be interposed between them and the 
lawn, or where they can be made to look as if they were 
naturally cropping out of a bank. Or they may be employed 
as a sort of rustic basement to some outbuilding. To grow 
ferns upon them, the shade of trees or some other objects 
will be indispensable; but many rock plants prefer an open 
sunny situation, so that rockeries should not be entirely 
shaded. If accompanied with a small pool of water having 
a broken rocky margin, a few of the rarer aquatics and sedgy 
plants may be grown, and goldfish can be kept. The mois- 
ture exhaled from such a piece of water would be very bene- 
ficial to many rock plants, and the jutting pieces of stone or 
overhanging shrubs would afford shelter, privacy, and shade 
to the fish. Where a clear running stream can be turned 
through a rockery and be expanded into a pool, trout may 
also be preserved in the latter; and if there be water enough 
to dash down a minature rocky ravine in the shape of a 
cascade, another characteristic accessory will be added. Of 
course it will be readily understood that considerable room 
will be required to develop any such ambitious plan. If such 



210 Landscape Gardening 

things are undertaken on too small a scale they only succeed 
in appearing ridiculous. 

Rockeries should be formed as much as possible of natural 
materials. All the products of art, such as fused bricks, 
scoriae, and the far more vulgar constituents of which such 
ornaments are often constructed about towns, are quite 
incompatible with any amount of rusticity. And this last 
should be the distinguishing element of all rockeries. 

As in the material employed so also in the mode of con- 
struction followed, rockeries should be conspicuous for a 
natural character. No appearance of art and no approach 
to the regularity or smoothness proper to works of art will 
be at all in place here. On the contrary, the surface of the 
whole cannot be too irregular or too variedly indented or 
prominent. An additional projection must be given to some 
of the parts by moderate-sized bushes, or short-stemmed 
weeping trees. Evergreen shrubs or low trees will be par- 
ticularly useful. Provision will therefore have to be made 
in the placing of the stones for planting a few shrubs and a 
greater number of herbaceous rock plants in their interstices, 
which should be left broader or smaller according to the size 
of the plant that may be required in them. No rockery will 
ever be interesting unless well supplied with all such fittings. 

For ordinary practice, the materials of which a rockery, 
however small, is formed should lie on their broadest or flat 
sides, and not be set on edge, much less be placed with their 
points upwards. Little deviations may occasionally be al- 
lowed for variety, but the mass will have more appearance 
of solidity and strength and be more accordant with nature's 
teachings if each piece be laid flat, with the outer edge shad- 
ing a little downwards rather than upwards. 

A rock garden may, if its size demands it, be traversed or 
made more generally accessible by narrow walks just capable 



Special Features 211 

of admitting one person. These need not be of any uniform 
width and should have no regular margin. They may be 
made of some quiet-colored material, and not covered with 
dressed gravel, the mere stones of which the rockery is com- 
posed forming the best possible paths, if they are tolerably 
flat. 

Any great elevation should never be sought in small rock- 
eries. This would both be inconsistent with their breadth 
and would render them too prominent and artificial. They 
should not be carried higher than the point at which they 
can be well supported and backed with a broad mass of earth 
and vegetation. Additional height may sometimes be given, 
if desired, by excavating into a hollow the base from which 
they spring. An old quarry will supply the foundation of 
an excellent rockery, in which considerable height, relatively 
to the bottom, may be attained, and much of boldness. It 
should be seen, however, that in working it, masses of rock 
be merely wrenched or blasted off, in the most irregular 
manner, and no sawing or cutting to an even face be any- 
where permitted. Extreme ruggedness of surface is what 
would be most characteristic in such a situation. 

No collection of rocks should ever begin or end abruptly, 
but should gradually die away into the adjoining ground 
by means of a few carelessly scattered groups or single masses 
of stone. Attention to this point will mark the difference 
between the practiced and the unobservant artist and will 
exercise a great influence over the whole composition. 

Shrubs with trailing habits, evergreens, and a few of the 
less delicately branched weeping kinds, and those which 
assume a wild, ragged, and picturesque character, are most 
congenial to rockeries. The first class, especially, includ- 
ing the ivy, the Cotoncaster mkrophyUa, Berber is empetri- 
folia, periwinkles, heaths, etc., always seem in place and 



212 Landscape Gardening 

at home. And the more decided climbers, such as clematis, 
the hop plant, Wistaria sinensis, some of the better sorts of 
bramble, the wild roses, Virginian creeper, and several others, 
would, if suffered to scramble over the bolder parts of rock- 
eries and duly pruned and regulated so as not to smother 
things of more value, be most important and engaging 
accessories. 

Grass never harmonizes well with rocks if brought into 
immediate contact with them. They demand the adjunct of 
a rougher and less polished vegetation, such as attends them 
in a state of nature. Common heath, whortleberry, etc., 
cut into sods, and laid with a broken line along the margin 
of rocks and interspersed in parts with the dwarfest trailing 
evergreens, will give a good rustic finish, and may be par- 
ticularly valuable in connecting the rocks with any mowed 
grass beyond. Everything like a perceptible or continued 
line (much more a curved line) must be distinctly avoided 
in the appropriation of such materials. Rocks should join 
the grass in the most jagged and inartificial manner. 

Rockeries can be made to answer one or two simple pur- 
poses, which will impart meaning and spirit to them and 
prevent them from becoming the expressionless and pointless 
things which they usually are. Where there are raised banks 
between one part of a garden and another, rocks can be 
employed to face the more private side of them, and will 
contribute to their solidity at the same time that they 
increase their propriety and interest. If, again, a walk be 
cut through a bank, rocks may be used to hold up the sides 
of the opening when steep. Or where a walk travels along 
a narrow hollow between two banks, the slopes of the banks 
can be partially covered with masses of rock. In both these 
last cases an imperfect imitation of a small defile will be 
produced and may be made very consistent and natural. 



Special Features 2 1 3 

The plan will be particularly serviceable where the hollow 
has to be made as narrow as possible and the banks have 
consequently to be kept pretty upright. At any rate, such 
an arrangement will be infinitely preferable to having mere 
heaps of stones thrown together without any apparent object 
beyond the simple creation of the mass. 

6. The Rose Garden. — Roses, which are favorites with 
everybody, may be fitly collected into a small separate gar- 
den, which will then be denominated a rosary. Like the 
rock garden or the private flower garden, the rosary should 
be detached, away from the general lawn and in some side 
nook severed from the rest of the garden by a partial screen 
of shrubs. It can only, of course, find a place in gardens of 
medium and larger size. From very limited plots it must 
necessarily be excluded. 

As with the flower garden, the rosary requires to be shel- 
tered (not shaded) and sunny. And there is the more reason 
for it to be in a retired part because it is very uninteresting 
during the winter season. It should be of some regular 
shape, with the beds tolerably bold and simple in their out- 
lines. Very narrow parts in beds, or acute corners, would 
be nearly useless and look extremely meager because few 
plants could be inserted in them, and these would cover the 
ground but imperfectly. At the same time, the beds ought 
not to be much broader than will allow the center of them 
to be reached pretty easily from either side. And they 
should have divisions of grass or gravel from three to four 
feet in breadth, as the admirers of roses always want to go 
among them comfortably. Grass will always look better 
than gravel, and when it is used, there will not be more 
than one or two cross walks of gravel and an encircling one 
necessary. 

Perhaps the best shape for a rosary is a circle, or a square 



214 Landscape Gardening 

on which a circular pattern is laid, or an oblong figure rounded 
at the ends, or an octagon. A good form for the beds will 
be oblong, with the ends rounded, arranged in various sizes 
around a central circle and diversified by a mixture of smaller 
circles. 

Since roses are very similar in height and character, a 
rosary filled with only the dwarf-growing kinds will be com- 
paratively tame and monotonous. But with the aid of 
standards of various heights and habits, and climbers trained 
to poles, much interest and variety of outline may be pro- 
duced. These auxiliaries should not, however, be commonly 
put in the beds (save a single climber or a cluster of them 
in the central mass), but stand by themselves in spaces pre- 
pared purposely for them, and arranged symmetrically as 
parts of the plan. Sometimes a very strong and brilliant 
effect may be occasioned by having a few small beds filled 
with roses of only one color. And a rosary may even be 
altogether furnished by assigning each tribe to particular 
beds, in corresponding parts of the garden. White and blush 
roses make a good mass, as do those which have the color 
of the common rose and particularly the dark-flowering 
Chinas, which bloom so long and group together so admirably. 

Covered archways made of wire, or small open temples 
formed of either wire or rough wood with the bark on, will 
sometimes be interesting features in a rosary, for the support 
of climbing kinds. To be able to sit in the shade during 
summer, embowered with only elegant roses, is certainly a 
luxury of no mean or ordinary description. 

The plan shown in figure 58 is of a rosary which I made 
in the neighborhood of Dulwich, near London. It lies in a 
sheltered and partially detached corner of the grounds, and 
is connected with the kitchen garden on the north side by 
the walk at the top of the engraving; the walk to the right 



Special Features 



215 



leading eastwards into the general pleasure grounds through 
some wire arches covered with climbing roses, that to the 
left being finished by a handsome summerhouse, and the 




Fig. 58. Design of a Rose Garden 

southern walk, which quickly turns westwards, being con- 
ducted through a small wood to another part of the estate. 
The whole is nicely open to the south, southeast, and south- 
west, on which sides only shrubs exist. On the other 
margins larger trees mingle with the plantations. Great sim- 



216 Landscape Gardening 

plicity and roundness of form will be observed in the beds, 
and the grass openings with the grass verge round the edge 
of the walk are varied and ample. The references will make 
the details quite intelligible: — 



Beds of Province Roses. 

,, Hybrid Perpetual Roses. 
,, Damask Roses. 
,, Moss Roses. 
Bed of Noisette Roses, with 
Climbing Rose, trained to 
a pole, in the center. 



6. Beds of Hybrid China Roses. 

7. ,, Bourbon Roses. 

8. Climbing Roses, trained to poles 

eight feet high. 

9. Standard Roses. 



It will be seen that each important tribe is brought together 
in beds by itself, and if the sorts be nicely selected and mixed, 
such an arrangement will be found usually more productive 
of harmony, character, and tone than any merely promiscu- 
ous mixture of all the groups. 

7. Special Collections. — There are few places of sufficient 
magnitude to admit of the formation of what has been termed 
an arboretum, or complete collection of trees and shrubs 
classified according to their natural affinities. And where 
there is actually room for it, such a gathering, according to 
the received notion of it, would be by no means ornamental, 
while it would necessarily comprise many species and varieties 
that are quite unworthy of cultivation. In spite of all this 
there is the greatest propriety in selecting the most distinct 
or interesting members of certain tribes and allotting a sepa- 
rate space to them within the general compass of the pleasure 
grounds. And one of the most pleasing of such departments 
would be the pinetum. 

By the term pinetum, however, I do not mean a spot that 
necessarily accommodates all the known or hardy species and 
varieties of coniferous plants; much less do I seek to advo- 
cate the common method of dotting these about, as single 
specimens, at nearly regular intervals, by the sides of a walk 



Special Features 2 1 J 

made on purpose to exhibit them; I merely wish to recom- 
mend the introduction, where practicable, in some remoter 
and wilder part of the pleasure grounds or woods, and par- 
ticularly where there are natural sloping banks of varied 
aspect with an ordinarily sandy or rocky substratum, of a 
careful selection of the most peculiar or most ornamental 
kinds. It would be my way to distribute these about very 
irregularly, in broken groups or as single specimens, according 
to the conformation of the ground, the character or value of 
the plants, and their fitness for entering into combination with 
others or for standing alone. In short, the object of a pine- 
tum should be to produce a new and unique but always pic- 
turesque scene or succession of scenes in a place, with the 
occasional exhibition of a very perfect specimen, and not, as is 
usually the case, a merely monotonous succession of specimens. 
A remarkably eligible site for such a pinetum would be a 
small winding valley in an old wood towards the outside of 
a pleasure garden. By cutting away the wood in the bottom 
of this valley, and making bold indentations into it along the 
slopes at its sides, a walk might be conducted through the 
hollow, and the banks could receive the choice conifers, while 
the groups of these latter would be broken here and there by 
jutting portions of the wood, and the whole would be backed 
and thrown into good relief by the deciduous trees composing 
the main mass. 

The drawing, fig. 59, will afford some slight idea of the 
grouping of such evergreen trees by the sides of such a walk 
as I have mentioned, the wood itself being nearly altogether 
omitted from the sketch. The lines of the walk are proba- 
bly smoother and more regular than they would be likely to 
be in such a situation. But they might, for variety, ascend 
the banks in certain parts, and would thus show the conifers 
more advantageously. The scale is 66 feet to an inch. 



2l8 



Landscape Gardening 



8. The Winter Garden. — By no means widely removed 
from the pinetum in character and purpose would be the 
winter garden. In reality, as conifers are almost invariably 
evergreen an assemblage of them such as I have just described 
would in itself compose a winter garden of a particular kind. 
And in a similar situation a quantity of ornamental shrubby 



» 




Fig. 59. The Arrangement of a Collection. 

evergreens might be gathered together so as to constitute a 
very effective specimen of the irregular winter garden. 

But the more usual or acknowledged application of the 
name "winter garden" would be to a plot that is arranged 
in a purely regular manner with the beds cut into quaint or 
at least formal figures, and the shrubs for these beds selected 



H 



K- O 




Special Features 2 1 9 

for the colors of their foliage and placed each by itself in a 
separate bed. With a due regard, in the choice of plants, to 
diversities of height and habit, to the periods of producing 
flowers or berries, to the variegation or other conspicuous 
peculiarity of the leaves, to dwarf edgings of another kind of 
plant, and to all similar ornamental details, the winter garden 
may be made very attractive both winter and summer. 

It is possible also to produce highly agreeable winter effects 
in a less formal manner. Evergreens and shrubs with good 
winter colors may be arranged in perfectly informal borders 
or masses, just as other materials are planted for the ordinary, 
purely naturalistic landscape effects. In such groupings there 
may be used all shrubs with bright colored twigs, as the dog- 
woods (Cornus stolonifera, C. siberica, etc.), the yellow willow 
(Salix alba vitellina), Kerriajaponica, etc., also plants having 
attractive fruits in winter; for example, the common bitter- 
sweet, many roses, viburnums, etc. All the best nursery cata- 
logues give good working lists of plants for these purposes. 

9. Playgrounds. — In the present artificial state of soci- 
ety, with every species of business conducted in an anx- 
ious and hurried manner, and so many persons devoting 
themselves to mental or sedentary pursuits, all sorts of 
out door exercise and amusement become additionally need- 
ful and salutary. And it is gratifying to find that there is 
a wise tendency towards harmless indulgence of the kind. 
A demand, therefore, more frequently arises for a bowling 
green, tennis court, croquet ground, or other play spot, as an 
appendage to a garden. 

I believe the orthodox form of a bowling green is a square 
of about forty yards each way, and that the best players pre- 
fer to have the ground very slightly raised towards the center. 
An oblong and narrower plot, however, will suffice for all 
ordinary practice; and as it is in no way requisite that the 



220 Landscape Gardening 

margins should be straight or regular, a bowling green may 
often be concocted out of the principal lawn, where the 
ground is flat enough for the purpose. 

Still, if there be sufficient space in the garden, and the 
natural levels of the land admit of it, a bowling green may be 
better treated as a separate thing. Fig. 60 represents one 
that I designed for James Ball, Esq., of Newton. It is of a 
circular form, the ground constituting the bowling green 
being sunk two feet, and there being a terrace bank defining 
it all round. The circular shape was adopted as being more 
beautiful than a square, and as allowing, between the green 
and the square walk around it, an opportunity of planting 
the margin effectively. The main object of sinking the 
ground, too, was one of convenience, to save unnecessary 
earth- work; but it also contributes to the effect, and enables 
those walking in the garden and keeping on the paths to 
see the players better. 

The top of the engraving is the north side on which the 
house and pleasure grounds are placed. A small supplemen- 
tary kitchen garden lies on the east, with a walk into it 
from the center of the bowling green on this side. The plan- 
tation to the south is on the boundary of the place and there 
is an open field to the west. A summer house (10) appro- 
priately finishes two of the walks, and is a convenient resting 
place for the players. The figures represent the following 
shrubs : — 

1. Irish Yews. 

2. Golden Hollies. 

3. Hybrid Rhododendron. 

4. Erica multiflora. 

5. " carnea. 
6' Spircea Lindlcyana. 

Should much alteration of level have to be effected in mak- 
ing a bowling green, the parts raised must be well trodden 



Mass of Rhododendron hirsutum. 
" ferrugineum. 

Beds chiefly rilled with Rhodo- 
dendrons, with Roses on the 
side next the bowling green. 



Special Features 



221 




SCALE OF FEET 



5 10 20 30 40 50 BO 70 SO 90 100 

Fig. 6o. Design for a Bowling Green. 

and rammed at the time of filling them, that they may not 
settle irregularly. It is likewise a matter of importance that 
the ground should be laid with good old sods, in order that 



222 Landscape Gardening 

the turf may be fine, and that it afterwards may be easy to 
take it up and re-lay it should the levels from any cause get 
disturbed. For these reasons it is injudicious to sow it 
down with new grass seeds; for if it falls into holes or depres- 
sions, it will be impossible to alter these under four or five 
years, unless by the introduction of old turf in such parts. 

Croquet grounds are commonly laid out anywhere on an 
established lawn wherever the company may wish to play. 
Such pastimes, however, are of sufficient value to justify 
more extension and thoughtful preparation. On private 
grounds of any importance a special croquet ground may 
appropriately be constructed; and this may become, not only 
a source of amusement to the younger members of the family, 
but in the hands of a skillful designer it may prove to be one 
of the most ornamental features of the grounds. Croquet 
grounds may be kept in grass, which is the preferable way 
considered from the standpoint of ornament, or they may 
be cleared and paved with gravel, brown earth, or even with 
cement. Such paving of course makes it possible to develop 
a higher degree of skill in playing, while if properly managed 
such a croquet court may still combine effectively with the 
general design of the garden. 

Tennis courts are to be treated in substantially the same 
manner. They should be carefully placed with reference to 
the other parts of the grounds so as to assist instead of break- 
ing in upon the garden design. Back stops may be clothed 
with pretty climbers, or may be backed up with masses of 
fine shrubbery or evergreens. In some cases the tennis court 
may be laid out on an ordinary level, mowed lawn; but as a 
grass court has little value for playing the game it is usually 
necessary to have the court paved with cinders or burnt 
earth. Cement has been used in some cases but it is not 
agreeable to the players. 



Special Features 223 

10. Water in summer weather is always grateful by impart- 
ing at least a semblance of coolness in addition to all those 
beautiful and varied effects which the influence of atmos- 
pheric phenomena begets. But an essential condition to its 
enjoyment is that it should be pure and clear. And this it 
can never be unless it is either continually changing by hav- 
ing an uninterrupted stream of fresh water flowing through 
it, or by being fully exposed to the action of light and air. 
Ponds that are encircled by trees are nearly always foul. 
Having a clay bottom and slopes, however, will contribute 
greatly towards keeping the water pure. Aquatic plants 
are also of much use, when not too abundant, in preserving 
stagnant water from putridity. 

In whatever way pieces of water may be introduced into a 
small place, simple forms appear by far the most congenial. 
Basins, either with or without fountains attached, and having 
a stone rim, will be in the best taste for formal gardens and 
can be either circular, octagonal, or of any other regular 
shape. Roundish or somewhat oblong pools or ponds will be 
another suitable class of figures for a small piece of water 
where more agreement with nature is sought. But if still 
greater freedom be desired and space be not so much an 
object, the shape may be more varied and irregular. 

The principal advantage of a varied outline for water is 
that it will not be all seen at the same time and that by a 
tasteful treatment of its terminations considerable indefinite- 
ness may be obtained in it. It is most essential, however, 
that numerous and unnecessary curves and bays which 
would destroy all appearance of breadth should be omitted. 
Islands, too, though they increase the variety and beauty of 
an extensive sheet of water rather fritter away and impover- 
ish smaller lakes unless they are adapted nicely to the 
dimensions of the whole. 



224 Landscape Gardening 

No irregular piece of water can be made at all tasteful or 
pleasing unless the margins of it are appropriately planted. 
As with a curved walk on a flat surface, unfurnished with 
planting, the curves in a lake would seem needless and im- 
proper. It is therefore requisite to plant or throw up a 
bank on all the promontories round the margin, diversifying 
the shape and extent of the planting according to the amount 
of curve that has to be hidden. And as bare mounds would 
rarely look sufficient in such a position, or effect all that was 
required of them unless they were disproportionately high, 
it will be better to make them only low, and plant dwarf 
bushes upon them. Larger trees overhanging and dipping 
their branches into the water at other points will be highly 
effective, and the weeping kinds of tree are especially suitable . 
for such purposes. Alders, weeping willows, weeping birch, 
the deciduous cypress, the liquidambar, and the tamarisk 
will be excellent plants for the margins of water in particular 
parts. For small islands, the common dogwood planted 
quite alone, and covering the entire island, will be very 
beautiful. 

That a piece of water may not be too much enshrouded by 
trees, which I have already said would tend to make it 
impure, to destroy its clearness, and to deprive it of the 
sparkle, glitter, and capacity for reflecting objects, which 
constitute some of its chief attractions, a large portion of its 
margin, especially round the bays and recesses, should be 
left unplanted. All plantings, whether of masses or speci- 
mens, can be arranged mainly with reference to their actual 
effect when viewed from a variety of points, but not without 
regard to their appearance when mirrored in the water i or 
to the shadows which they will throw upon it at certain times 
of the day. And in this view of the case, not merely elegant 
forms should be chosen, but masses of flowering shrubs which 



Special Features 225 

will produce broad effects in the way of color should like- 
wise be employed. Such would be the rhododendrons, aza- 
leas, hardy roses, laburnums, lilacs, etc., and, if within the 
pleasure grounds, hydrangeas, dahlias, or even patches of 
showy geraniums might be added. 

Smoothness and softness in the finish of the banks around 
water should be a leading feature, and the grass should slope 
down more or less gently to the very edge of the water so 
that there be no hard line of earth between them. Even 
where the plantations come down to the brink of the water 
there can still be a strip of turf below them, that the water 
may not wash against bare earth anywhere. 

In more secluded parts, water can be treated rather less 
artificially, and have its banks formed of partially broken 
ground, with rougher grass and masses of jutting rock or old 
roots on some of the more conspicuous points. This will 
heighten the variety and beauty of the reflections in it. But 
it requires consummate taste and art to effect anything of 
the sort. Gardeners in general have no notion whatever of 
dealing with ground otherwise than in the commonplace 
manner. 

Aquatic plants may be grown in any piece of water, but 
they will be less appropriate the more artificial the water is 
made, and will adapt themselves better to rougher and more 
rustic accompaniments. If kept near the edge and placed 
almost wholly opposite the more prominent points of land, 
they will be nearly tantamount to specimen trees or shrubs 
planted in the front of swells in lawn plantations, and may 
be equally good. 

Stagnant water being very apt to become corrupt and to 
evaporate largely in summer, some expedient should always 
be contrived for retaining water in lakes and maintaining a 
tolerably fresh supply. Thorough puddling for the bottom 



226 Landscape Gardening 

and sides will be a good safeguard against loss though it wili 
not be needed where the subsoil is naturally a stiff clay. 
And as few places would yield any other resource, it will be 
well to keep the water in the lowest part of the land (as it 
should be in point of taste also) and drain the whole of the 
ground, excepting the kitchen garden, into it. A mod- 
erate supply, in all but the very driest weather, will thus be 
provided. 

Where anything in the way of a small stream passes 
through a place, and is not at all sluggish in its course, it 
may be rendered additionally interesting by having its fall 
broken here and there with masses of rock and, where such a 
plan would not interfere with the general landscape, it can 
be covered in and darkened by plantations at various points, 
so as to allow small shady walks, banks of ferns, etc., by its 
side. When it takes a tortuous direction, walks of this 
description may cross it, by means of a few stones or a rough 
little arch, in different parts, and pass away from it for a 
few yards, to return again to its side in the next bend of 
its course. 

If the position for a sheet of water be skillfully chosen, 
advantage will be taken of any natural stream that flows 
through the property, and by throwing a dam across the 
hollow along which it winds, a lake may be formed in a very 
inartificial manner and at a light expense. This is precisely 
the case with regard to the piece of water depicted in fig. 61, 
which has been designed for the park of Sir Robert Gerard, 
Bart., at Garswood, Lancashire. There is a natural con- 
cavity in the ground within view of the mansion and adjoin- 
ing a small rivulet which flows from a northwesterly in a 
southeasterly direction, and by damming up this stream at 
the southern end a very little excavation would produce a 
sheet of water of the outline shown in the engraving and 



Special Features 



227 



leave a bank in the center for an island. The road shown in 
the sketch, along the eastern side, is intended for a private 




Fig. 61. Plan of an Artificial Pond. 

ride or drive, and winds from one of the main drives up the 
side of a picturesque hollow and through some woods to 
another part of the park. The short branch walk from it 
leads to a boathouse. And there is a separate walk from 



228 Landscape Gardening 

the house which would pass all round the lake, being kept 
chiefly in the open park but also running through two 
enclosures. The dotted lines represent the fences to all the 
plantations or enclosures and the mode of planting will be 
fully apparent from the sketch. The area of the lake would 
be a little less than three acres. 

As will be perceived by the plan, the part about the dam is 
enclosed from the park, and this gives the opportunity of 
shaping the ground nicely there and of planting it densely. 
Too frequently, in such cases, the treatment of an embank- 
ment of this sort presents a singular example of poverty and 
feebleness of invention. It is commonly made too narrow, 
too abrupt, or is planted chiefly with forest trees, which, 
when they grow up, appear thin and meager and sometimes 
shut out a most charming view over the valley below. 

The first requisite in making a dam is to place it at a point 
where the valley narrows and the adjoining banks are toler- 
ably steep and high. A trench of at least four or five feet 
wide should then be taken out across the hollow and be cut 
down till solid ground is reached. If this be clay, it will be 
so much the more satisfactory. The trench should then be 
filled up with puddled clay and this latter be added as much 
as possible in a sloping bank on the side towards the intended 
lake, a good broad embankment being carried up simul- 
taneously on the outside as the work proceeds, taking care 
also to build up a chamber and drain in cement for an over- 
flow at the same time with a strong sluice if it is wished to 
have the power of drying the lake. 

*1n planting an embankment, the predominant kinds used 
should certainly be bushes with only a tree or two here and 
there or a group of them to assist the outline. Dogwoods 
and willows are especially to be recommended. Any walk 
that crosses the dam of a lake, unless it be a branch stretching 



Special Features 



229 



down the bank for the sake of exhibiting a waterfall that 
may be constructed from the overflow, must be carefully kept 
on ground above the level of the water that it may not even 
appear dangerous. It may indeed be held as an established 
rule that water should not be allowed to be seen from a point 
where it seems to be higher than the ground on which the 
observer stands. 

In making purely artificial pieces of water, the depth 
should not be allowed to exceed from four to five feet and 




Fig. 62. Forming the Bank of a Lake. 



the slope of their banks must not be too steep while it should 
blend nicely with the ground around. Fig. 62 will exem- 
plify, in section, a good form for such banks. And it will 
also show from b upwards how the banks can be pitched 
with stone so as to preserve them from being washed away 
by the action of winds on the water. The stones can either 
be rough boulders, more irregular small blocks set on edge, 
or in large flattish masses. They should be well bedded 
into the bank, extend two feet (in vertical depth) below the 
surface of the water, and present a somewhat rugged face. 



230 Landscape Gardening 

In turfing the banks above, the sod (indicated by thin 
double lines in the section) should stretch down into the 
water as at a, at least nine inches below the water level, for 
there is a manifest beauty in the perfect union of the grass 
and the water where the latter comes within the range of 
the pleasure garden. Fig. 63 may possibly suggest a hint 
or two in regard to the profile of groups of planting by the 
sides of such pieces of water. 

Water birds on lakes of any magnitude in parks or on 
ponds in woods beyond the limits of the pleasure ground 




Fig. 63. Lake Shore Planting. 

are generally pretty and vivacious, and give life and motion 
to any scene. Islands covered with dense masses of shrubs 
are particularly useful as breeding places for water birds, 
as they protect them at night from foxes and other animals 
of prey. Small, rude shelter houses for aquatic birds may 
likewise become characteristic ornaments to the margins of 
such islands. But water birds should on no account be 
admitted upon ornamental water in pleasure grounds as they 
destroy the beauty of the banks, foul the water, and are 
otherwise a nuisance. A pair of swans might possibly form 
an exception. 



Special Features 



231 



11. Bridges, if at all wanted, ought to be of an exceedingly 
quiet and simple character in a small place. They should 
certainly never be of dressed wood or stone unless they have 
to carry the approach to the house over a moat, river, or 
similar piece of water. For merely crossing the arm of a 
small lake or giving access to an island, a simple rough plank, 
sufficiently broad and stout, with the bark left on at the 
edges, and a handrail made of undressed fir or larch wood 
with the bark on, will sometimes be suitable. Or a rather 




Fig. 64. Rustic Bridge on Simple Lines. 



more perfect and ornamental rustic bridge, that is altogether 
wanting in pretension and does not stand so high as to 
become very conspicuous, may be chosen in other places. 
Lightness and yet safety, rusticity and the absence of any- 
thing marked or staring, will be the leading characteristics 
demanded. 

One of the most obvious forms for such a bridge is exhibited 
in fig. 64, where two strong larch poles are thrown across a 
piece of water, and a path of cross pieces formed upon these, 
with a simple handrail, and light upright and diagonal bars 
of the same material on either side. This bridge is very low, 



232 Landscape Gardening 

and would not admit a boat beneath it, being designed for a 
stream about twelve or fifteen feet wide. But it might easily 
be made higher if necessary by obtaining, either naturally 
or artificially, additional elevation in the side banks. 

Wherever bridges are used, and whatever may be their 
material or character, they should never appear to spring 
out of the bare ground or be left without proper support 
and furniture in the way of trees and shrubs. And the same 
observation will be applicable to viaducts. This provision, 
moreover, is not merely necessary as a matter of safety, for 
no extension of handrails or parapet walls would accomplish 
the same end. It is demanded artistically to relieve and 
soften the rigidity of line and to associate the object better 
with the natural accompaniments beyond. And where em- 
bankments have to be made at the ends of bridges to carry 
a walk or road easily over them, the addition of masses of 
shrubs to mask those embankments is all the more urgently 
required. The idea thus sought to be conveyed will be fur- 
ther' illustrated by reference to the last three engravings. 

12. Boathouses. — Boats are seldom desirable on a small 
piece of water, as they occupy it too much, seem out of pro- 
portion, and reduce its apparent limits. When the water 
assumes the dimensions of a lake, however, and there are 
islands upon it, boats become indispensable, and to preserve 
them some kind of boathouse will have to be supplied. In 
the grounds or park attached to a Grecian mansion, a boat- 
house in the shape of a classic temple may be appropriate. 
Ordinarily some very rustic kind of structure will be decid- 
edly better. 

A boathouse may take the form of a miniature Swiss cot- 
tage, and have a reading or shelter room over the part in 
which the boats are kept, with a good balcony towards the 
water to afford facilities for fishing. It may thus combine 



Special Features 233 

three objects. Or it may, if suited to the style of the house, 
have a small open Italian pavilion over the boat department. 
Or in more picturesque scenes it may be made in the very 
rudest form of a low hut and simply be thatched with reeds, 
heather, or straw. In each of these cases however it should 
have a very bold, flattish, and broadly projecting roof. 



CHAPTER VIII 
Various Accessories 

Besides the matters already discussed there are various 
other accessories sometimes convenient or even necessary in 
the development of the home grounds. It is hardly ever the 
case that all of these will be required on any one property, 
unless indeed it be a private park on a very large scale, yet 
on the whole they are often needed, and some directions for 
their right development may reasonably be expected in these 
pages. Some of these undertakings involve questions of 
architecture, some questions of engineering, and others bring 
up other technical points. It is to be expected that the 
householder, looking after the improvement of his own prop- 
erty, will consult the proper experts in all these questions. 
At the same time it must not be forgotten that all these 
matters have also their bearing on the beauty of the premises 
as a whole, and so come under the special view of the land- 
scape gardener. 

i. Arbors, summer houses, and covered seats of all kinds 
may be very convenient and productive of much comfort in 
a garden if a few plain rules be observed in their construc- 
tion. They should be decidedly dry, and therefore must 
never be placed in a low or damp situation or be too much 
shaded or have the floor on a level with the ground. A 
raised floor will in fact be indispensable, and it will be 
drier and warmer if boarded or if open wooden stands for 
the feet to rest upon be fixed all round it along the fronts of 
the seats. 

234 




HP 



w?$r* 







X* 



Various Accessories 235 

Summer houses should never be made of materials that 
will harbor dust, dirt, or insects. Moss or heather linings 
will never be quite clean, and all sorts of insects will be 
encouraged to lodge in them. Rough cushioned seats and 
backs of green baize in arbors that are open to the weather 
will be alike bad in the same way. And wood with the 
rough bark on is only a trifle better. The best lining for 
them is small hazel or oak boughs about an inch in diameter, 
unstripped of their bark which will be quite smooth, and 
sawn to various lengths, so as to be fixed up to some fancy 
figures of no very elaborate pattern. This will be clean, 
dry, and ill adapted for the encouragement of insects, also 
very durable, which none of the other things named are at 
all likely to be. 

In point of taste summer houses should be concealed from 
the windows of a dwelling or correspond with it in style. A 
rustic arbor will not, however, be an unfit accompaniment 
to a building in the Swiss character or even to some kinds of 
Gothic if its details be accommodated thereto. But it would 
be entirely inharmonious with a building in the Grecian or 
Italian manner which demands more artistic and classical 
attendants. Everything rustic should, if employed at all, 
be planted out from the view of such houses. And perhaps 
the fittest form in general for a garden decoration of this sort 
will be some truly rustic object, made of rough wood, un- 
barked, thatched with reeds or heather, and partly covered 
with climbers, but partly supported by trees and shrubs, out 
of the front of which it should appear to spring. In other 
cases summer houses of purely classical design may be used 
with the very best effect on ground developed in a formal 
manner and in accompaniment with a house of Italian style. 

Fig. 65 represents the elevation and ground plan of a rus- 
tic summer house which I erected for David Bromilow, Esq., 



2 3 6 



Landscape Gardening 



and is made simply of unbarked larch and thatched with 
heather, the interior seat and lower part being lined with 
dressed and stained deal. It is placed on a mound in the 
pleasure grounds. 

It is to be observed that the present style for arbors in 




Fig. 65. Design of a Summer House. 

America has taken a somewhat radical turn. Whereas fifty 
years ago rustic arbors were recommended by all landscape 
gardeners and built on almost every ground, they are now 
very rarely seen. Grounds designed in a formal style nearly 



Various Accessories 237 

always have pergolas, which in a great measure serve the 
same purpose under another name; but grounds designed in 
the natural style nowadays commonly have nothing of the 
sort. The only substitute is the porch or wide house veranda, 
where the family and friends may sit out of doors to read, 
sew, gossip or, at times, to enjoy a social luncheon. As out- 
door life is to be encouraged in every way, and as the use of a 
garden or private park is equally to be recommended, the 
introduction of attractive summer houses or arbors really 
ought to come back into vogue. 

2. Statuary, vases, and similar architectural ornaments, 
are the fitting associates of Grecian and Italian houses, and 
are decidedly less suitable in relation to every other style. 
Not that such things as low terrace walls with or without 
tracery, pillars for sundials, ornamented with the details of 
pointed architecture, and even vases or urns of a particular 
form and with proper decorations, will be faulty in connection 
with Gothic buildings, and formal gardens of the same char- 
acter. Only, the varieties of the Grecian style, with their 
architectural arrangement of walks, beds, etc., would appear 
to correspond most with and demand such ornaments as 
vases, tazzas, urns, pillars, sculptured figures, basins of water, 
with fountains, and the like things, to carry out and finish 
their expression and design. 

It may be worthy of consideration in adapting statuary 
or sculptured figures to the purposes of garden ornament 
whether there is not an unmeaning anachronism in our per- 
severing adherence to the old classical subjects and nude 
representations, and how far it may not be desirable to break 
from such trammels and present rural objects, local pecu- 
liarities of costume, or some artistic embodiment of such 
ideas as the country and a garden suggest. For, apart from 
the mere beauty of form, it surely cannot be fitting that the 



238 Landscape Gardening 

subjects proper to a sculpture gallery should be transferred 
at pleasure to the region of the garden as though the latter 
could claim no style of embellishment peculiar to itself. 

Besides the choice of subject however the style of treat- 
ment in garden sculpture requires revision. Excessive 
smoothness, such as will be found in naked figures, is a great 
charm in works that are to be examined closely and in the 
house. But out of doors the greater ruggedness of drapery 
and the introduction of rougher, bolder, and more prominent 
parts, such as will yield shadows and impart picturesqueness, 
will be more satisfying to the eye, and more in harmony with 
natural objects. 

Figures that are composed of plaster and colored nearly 
white have a very paltry look in a garden, especially if they 
are so small as almost to degenerate into images. Plaster 
vases, however, or rather such as are composed of what is 
termed artificial stone or terra cotta, will, if properly col- 
ored and sanded, scarcely be known from stone at a little 
distance. 

All sculptured ornaments that are employed in the neigh- 
borhood of Grecian buildings should be classical in their 
design, and of whatever material be well executed. Any 
inferior thing in either of these respects had better never 
be introduced. Comparatively few manufacturers seem to 
hit upon pure and simple forms for vases, though there is 
happily a better taste beginning to prevail in regard to all 
such subjects. 

Some latitude of choice is allowable with respect to the 
positions of any architectural figures in a garden. They 
ought not, however, to be placed out on the middle of a lawn, 
except in very rare instances (such as sundials occasionally), 
nor can they usually be allowed to stand on bare earth or in 
the midst of a bed of flowers or shrubs. The fittest spot for 



Various Accessories 239 

them seems to be in the immediate vicinity of buildings, on or 
near low terrace walls, at the ends of walks, on gravel, at the 
corners of a square or oblong plot that is surrounded by walks, 
in the center of a circular plot, or in the middle of two walks 
where they cross each other. 

3. A greenhouse or conservatory is a luxury which few 
who can afford it and are fond of plants will be disposed to 
forego. When attached to the dwelling house, which is at 
once a convenience and a disadvantage, it is too often erected 
as an afterthought and thus appears as a patch to the building 
or is merely tacked on to it by the architect as a part of the 
first design on account of the difficulty of making it enter 
into the composition of a structure. The difference between 
a greenhouse and a conservatory is that the former is for the 
entire cultivation of plants, and the latter only for their dis- 
play when in a flowering or otherwise interesting state. The 
mere fact of being attached to the house does not of itself 
form a distinction, unless the bulk of the objects in it are 
planted out in beds or borders, when it becomes a conserva- 
tory, however small may be its dimensions or however it 
may be otherwise employed. 

If united to the house it should be made a decidedly archi- 
tectural object and not look like a superfluous appendage of a 
different character. Light iron conservatories with curvi- 
linear roofs can seldom, if ever, be properly blended with the 
rest of the building. Sufficient lightness and elegance may 
always be readily attained without such incongruity. The 
front of a conservatory in the position under notice should 
generally be as high as the ceiling of the ground floor of a 
house, and its cornice range with the string course of the 
building, if there be any. The roof may be kept as low as pos- 
sible, so as to be very little seen. All heavy pillars, mullions, 
etc., must be expressly avoided, for one of the most vital fea- 



240 Landscape Gardening 

tures will be the free admission of light, if plants are to be 
grown in the house. But if intended only for flowering 
plants, light is not so much an object. Liberal provision 
should also be made for ventilation at the sides and in the 
roof and a proper command of heat will be absolutely requi- 
site. The best aspect would be southeast or southwest. 

Although having a conservatory thus within, as it were, 
the walls of a dwelling makes it delightfully accessible at all 
seasons and gives a pleasant object through one of the draw- 
ing-room or library windows when it is thus entered, yet the 
only kind of structure that can consistently be built in such 
a situation will not be fit for growing plants in; and unless 
an additional plant house be possessed or an adequate num- 
ber of pits and frames to maintain a perpetual supply of 
blooming plants, a house of a different character in another 
position will be highly desirable. 

A conservatory that communicates directly with one of 
the chief entertaining rooms is sometimes found objection- 
able on account of admitting dampness, an earthy smell, 
or the odors from fumigation by tobacco. It is therefore 
generally better to connect them by a glass corridor or 
interpose a small ante-room, museum, or sculptor-room 
between them and the drawing-room, or remove them still 
further from the house and approach them by a covered way. 
It is no doubt very agreeable, where there is a suite of rooms 
terminating in a conservatory, to be able to open them to 
the latter at night, for the purposes of an entertainment. 
But it must be remembered where gas is used that this is 
highly injurious to plants, and often causes them to throw 
off all their flower buds. 

When a corridor separates the conservatory from the house 
it affords an opportunity for making a difference of level 
between the two points. And a conservatory that is two or 



Various Accessories 241 

three feet below the floor line of the house will have its 
flowers much more favorably displayed from the window 
or glass door that may lie in that direction. 

No conservatory should ever be put on the entrance front 
of the house. It is an inversion of all rule, which presents 
the best feature of the garden first and destroys all privacy. 
Where a house is very near a public road, however, and there 
is not room for a carriage drive within the gates, or it is 
desired to have the bulk of the place seen only from the prin- 
cipal windows of the house, a glazed corridor of sufficient 
breadth to receive plants on both sides of the passage will 
form a charming entrance porch, flowers in a vestibule or 
lobby always appearing to give a visitor a smiling and cordial 
greeting. 

Sculpture of a high order in marble, or marble vases, urns, 
tazzas, etc., can be most fittingly accommodated in architec- 
tural conservatories, whether on pedestals or in niches and 
recesses. Nothing throws out and relieves marble statuary 
so well as dark-foliaged plants. 

Color, too, may be sometimes employed in picking out 
the moldings of the rafters, but it should not be too glaring. 
It is altogether a mistake to ignore entirely the use of color 
for conservatories and to adhere to the cold and monotonous 
white which is most frequently selected. A warm stone- 
color, with the mere sashbars painted white — or if the 
framework be of wood, stained deal or oak graining — will 
be greatly superior to white, and stages (of wood) should 
invariably be painted green. 

Detached greenhouses for the growing of plants should be 
provided whenever practicable. Their design and erection 
should nearly always be left to some concern which make that 
work their business, though the location and external design 
should always have the approval of the landscape gardener. 



242 Landscape Gardening 

4. The Kitchen Garden. — It has before been intimated 
in passing that a kitchen garden should be placed in the rear 
of the house and be as near as possible to both it and the 
stables, communicating with each pretty easily and directly 
and without the necessity of going through the pleasure 
grounds. The reason of these things is plain and simple. 
As a kitchen is itself generally kept at the back of the house 
and a kitchen garden has to be in communication with 
it, the two should be in close proximity. The manure, 
from the stables, having to be used in the kitchen garden, 
ought to be capable of being readily applied, and hence the 
desirableness of connecting the two parts as nearly as can 
be done. 

A kitchen garden, being intended for convenience and use, 
should be of some regular figure and have the walks, beds, 
and borders, as much as practicable, in straight lines and at 
right angles with each other. Any different arrangement 
would waste the ground and render it less easily worked. 

Where practicable and when the space is pretty ample, a 
kitchen garden will be warmer if entirely walled in, and the 
walls will supply the means of growing a number of the better 
sorts of fruit trees, a fashion which is now coming into use 
again in America after many years of neglect. The wall on 
the side nearest the north should be at least twelve or four- 
teen feet high and like all the rest should have a coping to pro- 
ject two or three inches. There may also be a good planta- 
tion of trees behind this wall, if convenient, or at no great 
distance from it, to increase the shelter. The side walls may 
be of the same or of a lesser height — -ten feet will probably be 
sufficient. And the front wall should not be higher than six 
feet or five feet six inches; or its place may be supplied by a 
hedge, if absolute enclosure is not needed. Where a planta- 
tion is necessary on the south side of a kitchen garden to 



Various Accessories 



243 



screen it from the pleasure grounds, it should be composed 
only of shrubs. 

All round the inside of a kitchen garden, whether it have 
walls or not, there should be a border of greater or less width, 
that according to its aspect the various kinds of suitable 
plants that take up little space or require a peculiar position 
may find their proper place. Such borders are still more 
requisite when there are walls, to give space for the roots of 
fruit trees to spread in them and to bring the trees more 
thoroughly within reach. They may vary in width from six 
to twelve or fifteen feet, with reference to the size of the 
garden and the kind of tree that has to be cultivated in 
them and the height of the walls. Borders with a warm sunny 
aspect may be wider than such as are colder and more shaded. 

On the inner side of the walks and either at the front or 
back of another small border, a good place for fruit trees 
treated as espaliers will be found. When walls are not used 
or there are not enough of them for growing such things as 
some of the better kinds of pears, espalier fences will be a 
good substitute and may sometimes be employed with advan- 
tage for apples likewise. Strong wire fences about six feet 
high for espaliers are now mostly preferred to wooden ones 
for appearance and durability, and they are also more con- 
venient because of the smallness and roundness of the bars. 
In the absence of espaliers, however, these inside borders 
may be appropriated to dwarf pear, apple, cherry, or plum 
trees, and if the space permit to gooseberries and currants 
as well. The borders which run north and south should 
generally be devoted to espalier and other trees, and goose- 
berry, currant, raspberry, or other bushes be put on the bor- 
ders that take a contrary direction. This rule is derived 
from the amount of shade cast by trees, however dwarf they 
may be. 



244 Landscape Gardening 

When the form of a kitchen garden is a parallelogram the 
longest sides should be those from east to west that a greater 
length of south wall may be obtained. And if there be a 
secondary slope in the ground as well as one to the south it 
should be to the west in preference to the east ; for crops that 
are growing on an easterly bank suffer most from spring 
frosts, in consequence of their catching the sun so much 
earlier in the morning. 

Either within the kitchen garden or not far from it, there 
should be a moderately large cistern, basin, or pool of water, 
or a pump with an open cistern attached. A good deal of 
watering is sometimes required, and water is always so much 
better for plants when it has been well exposed to the action 
of the air in an open cistern or vessel. 

Somewhere at the back of the kitchen garden, one or more 
sheds will be wanted for a variety of uses, together with a 
yard for rubbish, manure, compost, etc., and which last 
should be accessible at some point with a horse and cart. 

Perfect drainage is particularly essential for a kitchen 
garden, also a rather deep alluvial soil. Beyond the depth 
of two feet, however, any ground or border will be unfit for 
fruit trees, and for the better kinds it will be prudent to put 
a layer of stones and rubbish below the border at that depth 
to prevent the roots from passing away too far from light 
and air. If a kitchen garden be on a slope towards any point 
near the south it will be drier and warmer, both of which 
would be advantageous. 

A kitchen garden may sometimes be made to embrace an 
ornamental strip of ground down the center, for the display 
of flowers, and this may take the form of a border on either 
side of a grass path, or of a series of flower beds cut out of 
grass, on the sides of a gravel walk. In both instances the 
dressed portion should be well defined and separated from 



Various Accessories 245 

the vegetable department by hedges or by what would be 
much more appropriate and useful — espalier fruit trees. 

Orchards should be introduced as a part of every rural 
estate which has more than the most limited area. An 
orchard will give opportunity for the growing of fruits in 
much greater quantity than will be supplied by the dwarf 
fruit trees already suggested for the kitchen garden. Nothing 
can be more ornamental in itself than a thrifty orchard, par- 
ticularly of apple trees. The climate varies so much in dif- 
ferent portions of America, and with it the requirements with 
regards to orchards, that general directions can hardly be 
given. At any rate such instructions can better be sought 
in books devoted to fruit growing than in one devoted to 
ornamental gardening. 

5. An aviary may occasionally be a very pretty feature in a 
garden and give a character to a spot that would be otherwise 
dull or defective. It will be proper in almost any of the sites 
which have been declared suitable for summer houses, and 
may be made rustic, trellised, or architectural as the local- 
ity may demand. It ought, however, by all means, to be 
sheltered, sunny, and dry, or the birds will never be healthy, 
and to be kept close and heated artificially for tender 
birds or more open and airy for such as are hardier. It 
should be well paved or floored with asphalt to exclude ver- 
min. A recess at the back or end of a conservatory is some- 
times selected for canaries and birds from warmer climates 
and is particularly appropriate for any song birds, their notes 
seeming to sound more natural and tuneful among plants 
and flowers. 

For bees, the kitchen garden is a more congenial place, 
though a neat set of hives would not be an unfit decoration 
to the pleasure grounds, in a private part. They ought to 
have plenty of sun, and some shelter, and be kept at a dis- 



246 Landscape Gardening 

tance of several feet from a walk, that persons may pass by 
without interrupting them, or incurring the danger of being 
stung. 

6. The Gate Lodge. — Although the old-fashioned notion 
of a porter's lodge at the entrance gate of a private place has 
fallen into disfavor in America, and although lodges will sel- 
dom be needed in a small place, it may be well to offer a few 
suggestions respecting them with an eye to cases in which 
they may be legitimately introduced. Unless a drive is long 
enough to carry the entrance so far from the house that the 
lodge would not be seen from it, the erection of a lodge at 
all will be in very questionable taste, for one of the first 
requisites is that it should not come into view from the win- 
dows. 

The smaller the place and the shorter the drive, the more 
quiet, modest, and low should be the entrance lodge. Some- 
times however in peculiar situations the offices of the house 
or other buildings may be so lengthened out that the lodge 
will form a portion of the entire group, when it may prop- 
erly have an upper as well as lower floor. In general 
however it should be all on one floor and ought always to 
correspond with the style of the house, being rather plainer 
in its character than more ornamental. It must likewise 
blend with the entrance gates and gate piers in its character 
and fittings. 

A lodge should be so placed as to command the best view 
of the gates to which it must be near enough to appear to 
belong to them; and it should also overlook as much of the 
outside road and of the drive as possible. For this last 
reason it is better to put it on the inner side of the curve 
which the drive may take where this is at all practicable. 
A few flowers and flowering shrubs around a lodge will be 
proper accompaniments to it as a dwelling and will make it 



Various Accessories 



247 



appear lively and pleasant. There should not be any regular 
garden attached to it however. A small porch with climb- 
ers where the style will allow it is always pretty, cottage- 
like, useful, and attractive. Even a plain covered way round 
two or three of its sides supported by rude pillars for climb- 




Fig. 66. Gate Lodge and Entrance. 

ing plants will be a congenial and delightful feature in 
summer. 

The position of a lodge and the form which wing walls to 
an entrance may assume will receive additional illustration 
from the examples now to be adduced. Fig. 66 shows the 
entrance to an exceedingly delightful place in the valley of 
the Lune, about three miles above Lancaster, which I ar- 
ranged for Adam Hodgson, Esq., of Liverpool. The house 
is planted on the spot which has been aptly described by 
the poet Gray as presenting " one of the best afternoon views 



248 Landscape Gardening 



in England." The site is an elevated platform, with a sud- 
den bend in the river immediately below it, and a long, 
winding stretch of river extending up the valley to the 
east, the valley being closed in at its head by the highest of 
the Yorkshire hills — Ingleborough. To the southeast and 
south there is a most picturesque and varied hill partially 
clothed with woods and always presenting the most striking 
diversity of color. On the north side, within the estate, is a 
wooded eminence scarred with rock and broken by an old 
quarry. And the place has had the advantage, in the dis- 
posal of its woods, of artists no less distinguished than Mr. 
Gilpin and Sir John Nasmyth. 

The entrance is in the bay of a curve in the high road and 
the lodge is an attractive design in the Gothic style. It 
is proposed to erect low walls between the piers shown in 
the wing fences, and put a low iron fence composed of two 
or three strong horizontal bars with only the necessary 
uprights at intervals, on the top of these walls. The drive 
which is only between 300 and 400 yards long will be kept 
entirely within the enclosure of the dressed grounds. 

Fig. 67 shows the entrance to Halton Grange, near Run- 
corn, the residence of Thomas Johnson, Esq. The lodge here 
being in the Italian character and the walls about the gates 
being treated in a more elaborate architectural manner, there 
is a propriety in making them concave to the high road, a 
device which always gives emphasis to the entrance to a 
place, and also adds dignity unless the space be badly treated. 
The drive, too, being much longer, and there being another 
gate at the point where the pleasure grounds are entered, the 
plantations have to be fenced in separately as shown by the 
dotted lines, and the wire fence on the left includes the small 
grass plot around the lodge. This entrance is close to the 
boundary of the property, that being the side on which Run- 



V 



anous 



A 



ccessones 



249 



corn lies, and it being nearly always approached from that 
quarter. 

The plan, fig. 68, exhibits an entrance of a more imposing 
class and belongs to a much more extensive property. It is 
the principal approach to Leighton Hall, near Welshpool, the 




Fig. 67. Simple Lodge and Entrance. 

seat of John Naylor, Esq. The wing walls and lodge are of 
stone, a species of black trap, with white stone copings and 
trimmings, and there is an elaborate and massive archway 
for carriages, with side arches for foot passengers. The 
ogee form of the wing walls is in itself elegant and is adapted 
to the Gothic style of the lodge and mansion. 
My last illustration of this class, fig. 69, is drawn from a 



250 



Landscape Gardening 



new entrance, sketched by me, to the property of Sir Robert 
Gerard, Bart., at Garswood. The point of entrance here is 
particularly happy, being at the junction of four roads, — a 
circumstance that is often of itself sufficient to determine 
the position of some kind of inlet to a place. Being intended 




Fig. 68. Imposing Recessed Entrance. 

chiefly for the St. Helens road, however, it is called the St. 
Helens entrance to distinguish it from two other approaches 
to the hall. And as the property around it belongs to Sir 
Robert Gerard the corners between the contiguous roads 
are intended to be cut off from the fields behind them, and 
planted in the manner shown, being kept in grass, and separ- 



Various Accessories 



251 



ated from the roads only by an open fence of posts and 
chains. In this way there will be a certain amount of suit- 
able furniture all around the entrance. The wing fences will 




Fig. 69. An Unusual Type of Entrance. 

be of ornamental iron, on a proper plinth, and will extend on 
either side as far as the last piers shown in the sketch where 
they will" be joined by the park wall. The gates, of which 



252 Landscape Gardening 

there will be one for carriages, and two for foot passengers, 
will be of similar material. The drive is straight only in so 
far as it passes through an old plantation which is kept as 
an enclosure. After leaving this it will curve gently to the 
right across the park to the hall. 

In each of the plans thus given the lodge is supplied in its 
rear with a small enclosed yard containing the usual con- 
veniences. All the lodges are on one floor only and all are 
more or less embosomed in trees. 

Double lodges, one on either side of entrance gates, have a 
great air of pretension about them and can seldom be justi- 
fied by necessity. The only way, indeed, in which they can 
be rendered tolerable is by connecting them with a central 
archway or otherwise working them up with the aid of walls 
into one group; the lodges themselves being partly thrust 
out beyond the walls. Even then, however, their use is very 
questionable unless the entrance to a place should happen 
to terminate the street of a town or village, when two lodges 
corresponding in position and character may possibly be 
made effective. 

7. Seaside Gardens. — Certain localities in the neighbor- 
hood of the seacoast are so liable to a visitation of violent 
gales, bringing with them such quantities of saline matter, 
that scarcely anything in the way of trees and shrubs can be 
induced to live in them, much less to become ornamental. 
And where, as is frequently likewise the fact, the surface of 
the land is covered solely with sterile sands, which, unless 
clothed with vegetation, are constantly shifting their posi- 
tion, it is the more important that some definite rule of 
treatment should be established which shall at least help to 
mitigate or remedy the evil, and give a special sort of interest 
to a place. This renders it proper, therefore, to devote a few 
words separately to seaside gardens. 



Various Accessories 253 

The mode of arrangement which I have found most satis- 
factory under such circumstances is to give great prominence 
to grass in a garden and by banks of varied form and height 
to secure some degree of diversity, obtaining shelter also 
by depressing certain parts of the lawn and throwing these 
into the shape of a sunk panel. Fig. 70 will more fully 
explain my meaning, this being the plan of a portion of the 
garden to be attached to a villa at Birkdale, near South- 
port. The land is close to the seashore, and is composed 
entirely of sand. The place is open to the full violence of the 
northwesterly gales. 

In the plan, 1 is the house, 2 the house yard, 3 the stables 
and similar outbuildings, 4 a part of the stable yard. There 
is a descending terrace bank two feet deep at 5, vases on 
pedestals at 6, another descending grass bank four feet deep 
at 8, a sunk level lawn which might have a few flower beds 
upon it or be used as a bowling green at 9, a strong close 
wooden fence along the seashore at 10, and a path to the 
seashore which would be common to this house and to a 
contiguous villa at n, the path being kept low where it 
passes the pleasure garden. The dotted line 7 merely shows 
the edge of the bank whence the ground drops rapidly to the 
shore. 

Such peculiarities as the altered surface of the ground will 
present may be better understood from the section, fig. 71, 
which is to the same scale (vertical and horizontal) as the 
plan and is made from the line A to B on the latter. By 
this it will be seen that the ground on the south or entrance 
front of the house is to be five feet below the ground imme- 
diately north of the house. This is purposely designed to act 
in connection with the house, outbuildings, and walls from 
them as a shelter to the south garden. And as the sand is so 
easily and inexpensively removed almost anything may be 



2 54 



Landscape Gardening 



fern Tl_ 




J 




U—^ 










■' 




/I: O" 1 


1 jjj 


<(fe 


1 




X 


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iljjil ^ 


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loo 


£>0 i ) 


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1 ' Line of sec 


T!ON 


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done with it. The section will further show the drops and 
depressions in the north garden and the slope to the northern 
boundary. This slope is to be densely covered with poplars, 
willows, Wych elms, and sycamores, which when growing 



Various Accessories 255 

in masses will rise five or six feet above the top of the bank 
and thus produce a fringe of summer foliage as well as impart 
additional shelter to the sunk lawn. The planting at the 
sides will be of a similar description with double and single 
furze to give a little evergreen clothing at the edges. 

By the variation of line in the terrace banks, and by 
having the entire lawn very evenly laid and nicely kept the 
want of shrubs and flowers will in some degree be counter- 
balanced, and there will be scarcely any bare ground for the 
wind to act upon. In preparing the ground for either grass 
or planting here it is customary to fix the sand by spreading 
over it a coating of mud, which is obtained on the seashore 
and is of a somewhat tenacious or clayey nature. And it is 

h 



___ 




Fig. 71. Section through Garden shown in Fig. 70. 

remarkable how such trees as sycamores will contrive to draw 
support from the mere sand by striking their roots deep and 
transforming them into a fleshy instead of a woody sub- 
stance. In removing some old sycamores from a similarly 
sandy locality several years ago, I found that their roots had 
entered into the sand to the depth of ten and twelve feet, 
and that these roots were of a succulent nature and fully 
half an inch in diameter throughout. 

8. The Town or City Garden. — Another description of 
place that calls for a brief special notice is the town or city 
garden which is commonly a narrow strip of land but little if 
any wider than the house which stands upon it, and varying 
in depth according to the value of land in the neighborhood 
or the position of the adjoining roads. For gardens of such 
a class arid shape there can be little question that the most 



256 Landscape Gardening 

regular plan of arrangement will be in all respects the best. 
The walks should be straight and at right angles and the 
beds and masses be symmetrical and well balanced. A walk 
on either side of such a garden or one down the center will 
be preferable to having a walk on only one side. And effect 
may be aimed at in the way of lines or rows of beds and plants 
with a summer house, a small greenhouse, a vase, a cluster 
of shrubs, or other pleasing object to terminate the little 
avenue thus created. 

As much of open lawn as is practicable and a predomi- 
nance of evergreens will be desirable for such gardens, since 
these will be agreeable at all seasons of the year. And 
extreme smoothness and neatness of finish and of keeping 
are essential. The beds introduced should be scrupulously 
simple in form and arrangement. 



CHAPTER IX 

Practical Directions 

Questions of taste having now been discussed to as great 
an extent as is compatible with the limits of a book like the 
present, I have only further to notice a few things respecting 
the actual execution. of work; and these refer rather to mat- 
ters of expense or comfort and the elements of success in 
cultivation. Of them, likewise, it may be truly said, as of 
points in taste, that little considerations will often be far 
from light or trifling in their influences but may determine 
altogether the propriety or undesirableness of any particular 
course. Indeed the nearer we approach to subjects entirely 
practical the more weighty and important will every topic of 
inquiry become, in proportion as necessary things are of 
greater moment than such as are merely desirable. 

As books, however, can only deal with general points of 
practice there will not be much in this part of the work to 
detain us long. The more minute details belong rather to 
the business of ordinary gardening than to that of laying 
out and forming a place. 

i. Drainage. — The first operation on land that has to be 
newly arranged will be to drain it thoroughly. No descrip- 
tion of ornamental or useful plants will thrive well upon 
undrained ground that is not naturally dry and open nor 
can such land ever yield any permanent enjoyment and com- 
fort. A cold damp soil is decidedly uncongenial to both 
animal and vegetable life. 

Drainage is not merely valuable in the removal of the stag- 

257 



258 Landscape Gardening 

nant water which is so injurious to plants and so productive 
of discomfort; it also has the direct effect of making the soil 
warmer and admitting air and gases freely. The tempera- 
ture of ground that is saturated with water can never be 
greatly increased, by whatever power of sun it may be acted 
upon, nor can air circulate properly through a liquid medium. 
Warmth and air to the roots being essential to the healthy 
growth and fertility of plants, drainage becomes of the highest 
consequence in soils that are naturally wet. 

Underdraining is now generally admitted to be the only 
effectual mode for any description of land, but this is espe- 
cially the case with garden ground. The roots of many vege- 
tables, and most trees and shrubs, strike down so far into 
the earth that shallow drains would be continually in the 
way of their progress, and would be very liable to be choked 
or injured by them. The more close, hard, and retentive the 
subsoil may be, moreover, the stronger will be the necessity 
for deep drains. Still, any extravagant depth need never be 
attempted. Three feet six inches to four feet below the ordi- 
nary surface will in general be the utmost depth required 
for common drains, while main drains should be two or three 
inches deeper. Where the substratum is only sandy, three 
feet for the ordinary drains will usually be enough. They 
can be about three inches wide at the bottom and fourteen 
or sixteen inches, or just enough to admit the draining tool 
conveniently, at the top, keeping the main drains one or two 
inches wider at the bottom in accordance with the size of 
the tiles to be employed. Common drains in gardens may 
be in parallel lines of not more than five yards apart and 
nearer if the soil be very heavy. 

Tiles or pipes are the materials most frequently chosen for 
draining land, though they are certainly not the best for 
gardens or where trees have to be planted. They are very 



Practical Directions 259 

apt to become filled up or obstructed by the roots of plants 
entering them, or by the action of moles, rats, rabbits, etc. 
Drains formed with rubblestone or any similar material are 
therefore superior to tile drains in gardens. Where rock is 
plentiful it can be broken into pieces of two to three inches 
diameter and placed loosely in the common drains, to the 
depth of twelve or fifteen inches; or similar pieces of broken 
brick, flint, coarse gravel, large cinders or clinkers, or what- 
ever else of a like nature abounds in the district can be used 
instead of rock. A rubble drain should not be less than five 
or six inches wide at the bottom. 

For main drains, however, tiles of 4-6 inches in diameter 
will be better as the principal conduits of water, but these 
should also be covered with at least twelve inches of the 
material of which the other drains are composed. Glazed, 
or "Akron" tiles, where they can be procured, will always be 
preferable to porous tiles; especially those which are made 
with collars to cover the joints have a decided advantage 
over those ordinarily used. 

Over the rubble with which both classes of drains are thus 
filled up, a sod of from one to two inches in thickness and the 
full width of the drain should be inverted, to prevent the soil 
from crumbling and washing down among the stones and 
clogging up the interstices. As this sod will last many years, 
until the soil has become quite consolidated, it will be a most 
useful auxiliary to the drains, and tend to keep their action 
more perfect. Fig. 72 represents a minor rubble drain, with 
the broken stone in it (b) and a sod (a) inverted over the 
latter. Fig. 73 shows a main drain which is deeper and 
wider, having a tile (c) at the bottom and being half filled 
with rubble (b) with a sod (a) over the broken stone. The 
scale is four feet to an inch. 

All drains should be cut out smoothly with even sides and 



260 



Landscape Gardening 



a very flat bottom in a firm soil, that the sides may never be 
falling in to impede the flow of water, and that there may not 
be anything like little stagnant pools in them. They should 
each have a sufficient fall by running down the natural slope 
of the land, and the main drains, being the general recep- 
tacles, ought to have a somewhat quicker fall than the rest. 
If the ground be very flat, a fall must be obtained by cutting 
the drains deeper at one end than the other. 

It is particularly requisite that a good and sufficient out- 
fall for discharging from a place all the water that accumu- 





Figs. 72 and 73. Cross Sections of Drains. 

lates by drainage be secured and be under due control. 
Where it is dependent en a neighbor, or the owner of another 
property, it will always be exposed to interruption and 
hazard. Efforts should consequently be made to preserve 
its independence. In these days of attention to sewerage, 
the common sewer which receives the refuse water from the 
house will be an excellent medium for taking away the soak- 
age from the land, if this can be at all readily contrived. 

2. Clearings. — In forming a new place there are often clear- 
ings to be made, and sometimes the removal of trees becomes 
as important a matter as their planting in other places. 
Where woodlands reach the magnitude of forests it will 



Practical Directions 261 

always be best to have such clearings undertaken only on 
the advice of an experienced forester. Where trees exist on 
the grounds in inopportune places they may often be removed 
to other situations where they will become of great value. 
The transplanting of large trees is nowadays a well-established 
procedure, and no good tree should be sacrificed simply be- 
cause it happens to stand where it is not wanted. 

Wherever old hedgerows exist and require to be removed 
and leveled in a part that is to be converted into a grass- 
field or park, the greatest care should be exercised in preserv- 
ing the better part of the trees and bushes that may be in 
them and in retaining these rather as broken groups than 
merely as single specimens. More may be done to break the 
line of a hedgerow by a due regard to the retention of bushes 
around or in connection with trees or in tufts by themselves 
than by any amount of thinning that disregards this mixture. 
And it will sometimes happen that the transplantation of a 
few old thorns, so as to break the lines of others or soften 
off a cluster of trees will be of the greatest service. 

Special pains should be taken not to cut away too much 
earth from such trees or bushes as may be selected to remain, 
but rather to add soil to the bank on which they stand than 
to leave the roots at all bare. By the common practice of 
spreading down hedgerow banks, so as to reduce them to 
the level of the ground around trees, the trees that are left 
often get blown over by wind or are gradually by the expo- 
sure of the roots rendered feebler and feebler until at length 
they perish from sheer exhaustion. 

3. Building Walks. — • Very much of the pleasure of a gar- 
den will depend on the manner in which its walks are formed. 
A walk that becomes muddy or slimy in wet weather or after 
frosts, or allows the water to lodge upon it during and after 
rains, or has a surface of coarse and harsh or loose materials, 



262 



Landscape Gardening 



will do much towards deterring persons from using their gar- 
dens so constantly, or at least will rob them of a good deal of 
enjoyment. 

To be perfect, walks and drives should be dry, smooth and 
even, hard and firm, in all weathers and at every season. 
And the more nearly they approach to the realization of 
these things the more they will contribute to comfort and 
ease. 

Dryness can be attained in a walk by shaping the ground 
properly in forming it, by rounding it up slightly in the mid- 
dle, by giving it a decided fall in some direction by placing 
gratings and catch basins for water at the lowest points and 




Fig. 74. Excavation for Walk. 

by using suitable materials both for the foundation and the 
surface. 

In the ground formation of a walk or drive (for the latter 
may be regarded as a larger description of walk in a small 
garden) a firm bottom should be obtained and it should be 
pared as smooth as possible, keeping it from three to six 
inches higher in the center according to its width. At either 
edge the ground should be sloped gradually down for about a 
foot or eighteen inches in width to the extreme margins 
where it may be six or nine inches deeper than at any other 
part. (See the cross-section in fig. 74, which represents the 
bed of the walk.) These extra cuts at the sides are to be filled 
with rougher material and to follow the general inclination 
of the walk for the purpose of drainage. They can com- 



Practical Directions 263 

municate occasionally with the ordinary ground drains, to let 
off the water that may accumulate in them. By laying the 
groundwork of a walk thus high in the center and smoothly 
sloping to a kind of drain at each side the utmost possible 
dryness will be gained. 

Here and there, however, in the lowest parts of the walk 
where water would collect on the surface, square holes or 
catch basins cut deeper than the ordinary drains of the land, 
to receive the water from grates placed on the surface, may 
be formed, and partly filled with rubble or, what is better, 
lined at the sides and bottom with flat tiles, bricks, or slates. 
These lodges can communicate, by means of short branch 
pipe or rubble drains, with the nearest common drain, the 
small drains from the lodges being on such a level as to 
receive the overflow merely, while the sand and sediment will 
remain to be occasionally removed. 

A walk should have from nine to twelve inches of material 
upon it, and a drive rather more. Only about three inches of 
this on the surface need be of fine gravel. The rest may be 
rubblestone, flints, coarse gravel, cinders, or any angular and 
irregularly shaped substance that will remain porous and dry. 
In applying this coating, the crown of the walk may be reduced 
by putting a less quantity in the center than at the sides. 
Walks of one yard wide can be raised about an inch in the 
center when filled, and those of two yards wide about two 
inches. For wider walks that are straight, in formal garden- 
ing, a greater proportionate flatness is desirable, or they will 
lose some of their dignity and effect. The three inches of 
gravel can be evenly spread over the w r hole surface. 

Gravel is exceedingly variable in quality in different parts 
of the country, and often requires some little artificial mixture 
or preparation before it can be brought into a right state. 
Gravel that contains much lime or clay, though excellent for 



264 Landscape Gardening 

binding, will become very dirty in wet weather, and break 
up considerably after frost. It wants the addition of some 
stronger, drier, and more sandy sort. Sea gravel, again, 
(unless it be the muddy sediment deposited on the shores of 
some great tidal rivers and containing a large proportion of 
half-decomposed shells which help to bind it firmly but also 
to make it cloggy after being frozen) will never bind at all 
without the help of lime or pulverized clay, or a strong loam 
reduced to a powdery state while dry and added in the pro- 
portion of about one-fifth or one-sixth. Such a mixture will, 
when it becomes fully set, form one of the best possible sur- 
faces for a walk, and will never be too wet. 

As the perfection of a walk consists in smoothness and 
freedom from rough stones, which would also kick up in dry 
weather and disturb the surface, either a thin upper coating 
of gravel should be finely screened, or the whole surface may 
be very thoroughly raked, so as to get off all but the very 
smallest gravel. Road scrapings, where they are tolerably 
free from dirt, will also, if sparingly applied, make a very 
even and excellent surface to a walk when gravel is scarce or 
not of a good binding nature. 

The color of gravel must of course vary according to what 
can be obtained in any district. Perhaps the best color, 
where there is any choice, is the full, deep, reddish yellow so 
common around London. Whitish gravels are usually too 
conspicuous and cold looking. There is a greater richness 
and warmth in the appearance of the yellower kinds. 

What very much affects the character of walks is the way 
in which their edgings are laid. These should be quite 
smooth, thoroughly flat along the margins, and, for some part 
of their width at least, precisely on the same level at both 
sides and very well defined though not more than half an 
inch above the level of the side of the walk. The edges ought 



Practical Directions 265 

to be kept at. one uniform distance throughout, unless there 
be some special reason for change. Walks that are not care- 
fully formed in accordance with all these conditions will 
appear more or less slovenly, deficient in the expression of 
art, and indicative of an unrefined taste. 

To render the edgings of a walk firm, capable of being 
made flat, and cut evenly, they should be formed of what 
gardeners call Tampering sods. These are thick turf-covered 
masses of earth cut from an old rough pasture and about 
six inches wide, and four to six inches or more in thickness. 
They are to be inverted along the edges of walks, leaving 
about two inches to be cut from the inner edge, next the 
walk, and paring down the surface until they are brought to 
the requisite smoothness of level. Edgings thus laid will 
never crumble away or become uneven unless with extremely 
rough usage. 

To determine the width most proper for a walk, the size 
and arrangement of the garden will have to be taken into 
account. Straight walks should always be wider than curved 
ones, but there must be a nice proportion maintained between 
their width and their length, as any excess of the former 
would diminish the latter. From six to eight feet will gene- 
rally be sufficient for the width of a straight walk, which 
should certainly not be narrower than six feet. A terrace 
walk may even be ten feet wide, or wider, if the house 
be large enough to justify it. For serpentine walks from 
four to six feet will be about the right width in gardens of 
the size under discussion, four feet being a little too small, 
unless the space be very contracted, and six feet somewhat 
too large. The intermediate width will be best in most cases. 
A drive can be eight, ten, twelve, or fourteen feet wide 
according to its length, and object. A back drive that is a 
branch froni the main approach will rarely need to be wider 



266 Landscape Gardening 



than eight feet. Ten or twelve feet will generally be most 
appropriate for other drives. 

It will be of some moment to adjust the height of walks 
relative to the general level of the ground with judgment and 
discrimination. As straight walks are intended to make 
prominent features in a place they should range as perfectly 
as possible with the level of the lawn. Any particular eleva- 
tion, depression, or roundness would not harmonize with the 
flatness and smoothness so desirable in the grass. If there- 
fore they are just half an inch lower than the grass at the 
edges and an inch and a half higher than it in the center 
(fig. 750) they will have two inches of camber which will be 
quite sufficient. 

For curved walks, as it will be a matter of taste to keep 
them more or less thoroughly out of sight, a few inches below 
the surface of the lawn or beds will be the fittest level for 
them, save where it is intended that they should command 
particular views, when they can be more or less raised. In 
the first case (fig. 756) the grass can slope gently down to a 
narrow flat edging at their margins, while in the other the 
turf may rise as gradually to join, with a round edge (fig. 
75c), a broader flat edging at the top. Where the ground 
and the walks themselves are well drained, and the surface 
of the former has been perfectly stirred, there will be no 
danger of depressed walks becoming damp. And besides 
their being more effectually concealed from the windows or 
lawn, persons moving along them will see the plants in the 
beds or borders or on the lawn to greater advantage; they 
will be a trifle more private and the house will appear higher 
and bolder as viewed from them. 

But curved walks will always require to have a greater 
degree of convexity (fig. 75^) and if they are six feet wide 
they should, while keeping half an inch below the verges at 



o 



awFfi-M- \ 










Practical Directions 



267 



the sides, be raised in the center two and a half inches above 
the level of those verges, thus making a difference of three 
inches between the center and the sides. And where the 
ground is very damp and low around walks that have to be 
made across parks and their being rendered conspicuous is 





Fig. 75. Different Forms of Walks. 



not a matter of consequence, it is a good plan to let the edges 
rise abruptly out of the ground to the height of about nine 
inches (fig. 75c), as dryness will thus be effectually secured. 
Grass paths that are not much used and are intended 
chiefly for appearance or for summer enjoyment may, in 
some situations, or as connected with houses in the style 



268 Landscape Gardening 

which prevailed during the reign of Queen Anne, have a very 
neat and lively effect. They should ordinarily be straight 
and will seldom look well unless they are so. They will of 
course require to have borders of flowers or shrubs on each 
side, and these might be filled with rows of one kind of plant, 
to form a sort of avenue, or they may be planted promiscu- 
ously. When required as a common thoroughfare at all 
times, grass walks will be inappropriate, because they would 
soon wear bare and would be wet and probably dirty during 
a large portion of the year. 

On good firm soil and in a climate where grass thrives, 
turf may be grown strong enough even to bear the weight of 
light wagon traffic, and thus grass drives are possible in such 
situations. Grass drives, regularly mowed with the lawn 
mower, are clean and beautiful, cheap and practical, and it 
is a wonder that they are not more frequently used. . 

4. Grading. — The period at which grading is performed 
in laying out a garden is not the least among the practical 
matters that have to be considered. There is an unhappy 
propensity to defer this till the very moment in which plant- 
ing and turfing have to be done, and thus due preparation 
cannot be made for the one, while the other settles most 
irregularly and requires subsequent altering and leveling. 

Summer and autumn are essentially the best seasons for all 
kinds of new ground work. The earth is then driest, and 
can be most easily moved about, and will not be injured by 
trampling or wheeling. Ground put into shape during the 
summer gets time to settle and mellow before it is wanted 
for either planting or sodding, and anything that is after- 
wards done in the way of finishing will stand better and 
demand less alteration. What is not altogether unimportant, 
likewise, labor can then be carried on more easily and can 
be had more abundantly, f should therefore earnestly press 



»'• : 



Practical Directions 269 

those about to form gardens not to put off the operation till 
spring, but to take advantage of the late summer and early 
autumn weather to get the principal part of the work done 
and the leading outlines of everything prepared. Perhaps 
the early autumn is better than summer for the purpose, as 
the ground will then be kept partially softened by rain and 
turf may be moved if required without being killed. 

5. Preparations for Planting. — In the preparation of 
ground for planting and for grass the difference in their 
requirements will have to be kept distinctly in mind. Plan- 
tations can hardly have too much good soil. A thorough 
provision of suitable and mellow earth will almost neutralize 
the disadvantages of climate or situation and keep plants 
always nourishing and healthy. For lawns, on the other 
hand, a light, shallower, and poorer soil, if it be properly 
drained and worked previously to sodding or sowing, will 
be preferable as tending to keep down undue luxuriance, 
and promote the growth of the finer grasses and check the 
development of rank weeds. 

Ground that is in any degree heavy or that has been 
newly drained ought to be deeply worked all over, whether 
for grass or plants. If the subsoil be clay, it can be turned 
up loosely in the bottom; but if of a lighter material it should 
be brought to the surface for plantations, and simply turned 
over in the bottom of the trenches for grass. It will always 
be undesirable to bring clay to the surface in pleasure gar- 
dens; though, in kitchen gardens, where it can be freely 
worked and mellowed for several years, the common mode 
of inverting the positions of the surface soil and the subsoil 
may be adopted. The reason for working a lighter subsoil 
to the top in plantations and not for grass is that additions 
of better earth can be made to the former, when the subsoil 
will be blended with this in planting, while it is rather in- 



270 Landscape Gardening 

tended to take away several inches of the topsoil from the 
grass land and transfer it to the plantations. Two, three, or 
four inches of the best earth, according to its natural depth, 
may thus be abstracted from the parts intended for lawn, 
and will go to raise and enrich the plantations without in- 
juriously affecting the grass. From nine to twelve inches 
in depth of the commonest soil will be amply sufficient for 
growing lawn grasses to perfection. 

In shaping and forming a piece of garden ground where 
much variation from the original surface is desired, the read- 
iest method is to commence at the lower part of the land, 
take out a trench across it of about four feet in breadth, and 
either lower or fill up the ground as the trenching proceeds. 
This will be a far more simple and economical plan than 
stripping off all the soil and putting it aside, and then 
working the ground into shape, and restoring the soil to the 
surface. 

All the soil from the foundations of roads or walks should 
further be applied to the ground intended for plantations. 
Even where the walks have to be raised rather than lowered, 
it will be better still to remove the soil and replace it with 
rubbish. The earth obtained from the foundations of the 
house or other buildings should also be carefully kept apart 
from the subsoil and used for the plantations. And it will 
be a prudent and safe rule to assume that no amount of good 
earth that is at all obtainable from any of the sources pointed 
out will be otherwise than beneficial for shrubs and trees, 
or for fruit trees and general crops in the kitchen garden. 

If the soil of a garden be moderately light and a good mass 
of it, by the means here suggested, be procured for the 
shrubs and trees and for the flower beds, manures, beyond 
such things as lime, soot, wood ashes, decayed leaves or 
wood, chemical fertilizers or any similar matters will be quite 



Practical Directions 



271 



unnecessary for the ornamental part. Roses, however, de- 
mand a richer soil and are much improved by the aid of 
some well-rotted manure, which should not be grudgingly 
administered 

But where the earth is stiff and clayey and not enough of 
lighter soil is within reach to correct its retentiveness and 
incapacity for growing plants, manures will then not only be 
beneficial but necessary. Common stable manure may be 
largely applied with advantage in such cases, while lime, bone 
dust, coal ashes, or the manure from the ashpits of towns, 
or the sweeping of streets will be invaluable. And these 
may be used, though with a more niggardly hand, for the 
parts to be formed into lawn, as well as for the plantations. 

When the opportunities and patience of the proprietor allow 
it, a garden will be greatly improved both for plants and 
grass if it can be deeply dug up in the autumn, a year before 
it is wanted for finishing, and left unoccupied for the season, 
simply keeping down the weeds. Or it may be planted with 
potatoes or sown with turnips or mangels, or otherwise 
cropped and kept clean. All kinds of crudities in it would 
thus be destroyed and the texture be greatly ameliorated. 
Considering that there will be such a slender chance of its 
being broken up again and worked otherwise than very par- 
tially after the lawn is made and the trees and shrubs planted, 
a year's preparation of this sort is only a matter of the most 
ordinary policy and should not, on any but the most impera- 
tive accounts, be lost. 

There is one tribe, of which the rhododendron is the rep- 
resentative, that wants a little peculiar attention as to soil. 
They will, it is true, live in any ordinary garden soil, espe- 
cially if it be light. But they attain their richest state when 
the earth in which they are grown is in great part made up 
of fibrous peat. To have them in their highest perfection, 



272 Landscape Gardening 

then, they should be grown principally in masses, so that 
proper soil can be supplied to them, and should be furnished 
with about one-third or one-half of good peat or leaf mold, 
in a rather shady situation. 

Where proper peat cannot be procured for rhododendrons, 
leaf mold will be the best substitute for it. And even if 
this should not be attainable, turfy loam, taken from an old 
pasture, may suffice, or well-rotted stable manure may be 
freely used in conjunction with common soil. Any earth 
that is naturally of a chalky kind or that contains much lime 
will be particularly unfavorable to rhododendrons. 

6. Circumventing the Gardener. — One of the greatest 
practical difficulties with which the artist in landscape has 
to contend is dealing with the picturesque. Smoothness and 
regularity of treatment are so thoroughly what an ordinary 
gardener is accustomed to, that it requires no small effort to 
enlighten him as to the mode of achieving anything really 
beautiful in the way of curved lines and undulations. But 
when ruggedness and an appearance of rude naturalness are 
sought it is indeed hard to obtain a practical operator. In 
this case, soil has often to be thrown down in rough heaps 
without smoothing, leveling, or exhibiting the marks of 
any tool; masses of soil or rock have to be wrenched away 
from the face of a bank; stones or roots have to be thrown 
down as irregularly and wildly as possible; tufts of rugged 
vegetation or scrambling shrubs must be left where these 
exist; all roundness or curvatures have to be avoided; and 
everything that is angular and broken striven after. Rocks 
when they are inserted require to be blended with the ground 
in the neighborhood by means of a few scattered groups or 
single stones, only partially filling up the interstices among 
them with soil so as to preserve a rugged surface and not 
providing for covering the stones too much. 



Practical Directions 273 

7. Present vs. Future Effects. — Planting may be under- 
taken with reference solely to the ultimate effects it will 
produce, or it can be made to embrace a more immediate and 
present result. The former plan is of course somewhat the 
easiest as far as labor is concerned, and is the least expensive 
when the plants have to be bought. But a garden that is 
planted only with the smallest nursery things will be exceed- 
ingly tame and uninteresting for several years, and it will 
require the planter to have a very good knowledge of each 
individual variety with respect to its natural or usual height 
and habit to make the final picture at all a successful one. 

In many neighborhoods where large areas have been 
planted for public or prospective ends, the yearly thinnings 
from such plantations will be obtainable on comparatively 
moderate terms, and these will be very useful in giving an 
appearance of age and variety to a garden. As the private 
gardens are generally in need of thinning, a planter may 
sometimes pick up a number of effective specimens among 
his friends or in the way of exchange for other things. And 
when these resources fail or money is not so much consid- 
ered most good nurserymen now grow plants in borders, 
and transplant them occasionally for the express purpose of 
supplying larger specimens that are well rooted and can be 
safely removed with balls of earth to diversify and give an 
air of greater finish to newly formed gardens. Such trees 
and shrubs can be bought very reasonably in large quanti- 
ties, and their free use is always to be recommended. 

Notwithstanding the extreme desirableness of attending to 
the present appearance of plantations, and putting in a few 
plants at intervals to make an immediate show and to banish 
the monotonous dulness unavoidable where only the youngest 
class is employed, the great aim of the planter should be for 
future effect, and where the bulk of the plants are healthy 



274 Landscape Gardening 

and likely to do what is ultimately expected of them, their 
temporary mean or meager aspect may be entirely disre- 
garded. And although the peculiar developments which 
result from accident may sometimes yield combinations 
superior to any that the most cultivated art could produce 
— such is the adaptive and plastic power of nature — yet 
as such fortuitous groups can never be calculated upon and 
may never arise, it is right to act as if all depended on the 
provisions of art and place each plant where from its known 
constitution it is most likely to yield the wished-for effect 
whether of outline, harmony, or contrast. 

8. Planting Out. — Having got the ground into a proper 
condition for planting, and remembering that the place 
should assume as good an appearance as possible both 
immediately and prospectively, the next consideration will 
be as to the time and manner of effecting this operation. 
The first of these will relate to the season and the weather 
alone. The other is much more comprehensive. 

Whatever may be said of plants bearing to be removed at 
almost any season of the year, if a due regard be paid to 
their nature and wants, it is pretty certain that the fall of 
the year, when the leaves of deciduous plants are just shed, 
is the most appropriate period for transplanting them, where 
choice is allowed; while evergreens will probably be less 
injured by being planted about a month earlier. Into the 
reasons for this view it would be needless here to enter, as 
both theory and experience confirm it. But planting may 
be conducted throughout the whole of the winter in open 
weather, and until the buds develop pretty vigorously, or 
the beginning of April. For deciduous plants, however, the 
earlier they can be got in the less they will suffer in the 
following summer; and evergreens, if unplanted at the time 
of the occurrence of the first sharp winter frosts, should be 



X 



c. 



^ 9, 

J? w 

a o 

^ 9- 



n 



p 




Practical Directions 275 

kept back until about the earliest showers in April, other- 
wise the harsh and drying winds of March will severely 
endanger them. 

Calm, dull, moist weather is almost of more consequence 
in planting than the time of year. If the sun be shining 
brightly, or there is any wind stirring, or the ground or the 
atmosphere be very dry, no kind of planting should be pro- 
ceeded with. A plant out of the ground, with its roots 
exposed to drying influences, is in as unnatural and perilous 
a position as a fish out of water. Both may survive; but 
they have a great struggle to get over it and their future 
health is for some time enfeebled. No weather is better for 
planting than the damp and foggy period so peculiar to 
November in England. 

Not only should planting be done on a cloudy and 
moist day, but it must be done rapidly, so as to keep the 
plants out of the ground as short a time as possible, and the 
roots should be preserved and spread out with the utmost 
care. A plant is mainly dependent on its roots for existence 
and support, and if these are much mutilated in taking 
it from the ground, or crushed, crippled, and huddled up 
together at the time of its replanting, its chances of life and 
vigor will be proportionately weakened. All the roots have 
their share of branches and foliage to supply; and when the 
former are much reduced in taking them up, or rendered 
inoperative by careless planting, the balance between the 
two is lost and great weakness or death results. The root 
fibers, therefore, should be strictly preserved as far as pos- 
sible and laid out in their natural position when replanted, 
covering the whole with light and fine soil. 

In transplanting shrubs or trees of any unusual size, par- 
ticularly evergreens, or even in moving smaller plants of the 
latter from one part of a place to another or from a position 



276 Landscape Gardening 

which admits of their being accompanied with balls of earth 
about the roots, these should always be kept. The ends of 
the roots must not be cut off close to the ball, but should be 
carefully taken out with a fork and the outside of the ball 
be left loose and guarded against every kind of compression. 
Where the roots become bruised or injured, they must be 
pruned and the jagged ends made smooth. The soil should 
be shaken very lightly among them and pressed under the 
ball by means of a blunt stick that no cavities may be left 
there. If the weather be ordinarily moist and the period 
be late autumn no watering of any kind will be necessary. 
But a thorough soaking with water will sometimes be useful 
in spring planting, and a subsequent mulching with grass 
mowings, manure, or litter will generally be found of service 
in dry summers. 

It is always safest to plant pretty thickly, for where the 
climate or the prevailing winds are not so severe as to demand 
this precaution, the better kinds of plants invariably grow 
stronger and faster for having a little shelter, provided this 
does not rob them of light and air or produce deformity, 
and is not continued too long. All the best plants and the 
larger specimens should, however, first be put in a plan- 
tation, the intermediate parts being made up of commoner 
things and such as can easily be taken or cut out the moment 
they begin to do harm. The rule among modern park plant- 
ers is, "plant thick, thin quick," — and it is a good rule. 

If large plants be used to break the outline of a young 
plantation, they should not be left to stand alone and unsup- 
ported, but be at least partially and irregularly surrounded 
with middle-sized plants of different heights, to relieve their 
solitariness and the abruptness of outline, and also to shel- 
ter them a little from the action of winds and shade their 
roots somewhat from the drying influences of sun and air. 



Practical Directions 277 

Single specimens of tall trees standing amidst a tribe of very 
much smaller ones look extremely naked and do not blend 
at all beautifully or softly with the rest. Nor would the 
hardness of their appearance be mitigated for several years. 

No plant will ever answer the expectations of the cultivator 
if its roots be buried too deeply at the time of planting or 
afterwards. Such a practice would shut them out from air 
and speedily tell upon the health, most probably killing the 
plant ultimately. The crown of the root ought not to be 
placed more than two or three inches below the surface of 
the ground. As the soil settles the plant will then at length 
have the collar or crown of its roots just level with the ground, 
and this is the most natural and healthy condition. 

That plants in masses should not be placed in any kind of 
rows, but be dotted about as irregularly as possible and at 
various distances from each other and from the front or back 
of the plantation, would seem quite a trite remark, were it 
not a rule that is seldom observed in small gardens. Nothing 
is more common than to see the plants put in either straight 
lines or rows following the outline of the mass, at one meas- 
ured distance apart, and with two plants of the same kind 
occupying precisely the same position in the bed on opposite 
sides of the garden, thus making the arrangement of a group 
a system of pairs, rather than the most inartificial and broken 
thing imaginable. Even in some great public and national 
works the trees are planted in rows although the outlines of 
the plantations in which they occur are decidedly irregular. 

All this, however, unless where studied lines or avenues 
are contemplated, is far too artificial for the natural style 
of gardening, which is essentially free, varied, and approxi- 
mating to nature. And since no such things as lines of 
plants, symmetrical correspondence of sorts in particular 
parts, or anything approaching to regularity of distance 



278 Landscape Gardening 

between the plants is to be found in natural groups, neither 
should any of these things exist in irregular garden masses. 
It is observable in nature, indeed, that several stems some- 
times spring out from nearly the same spot, and by the growth 
of the branches get forced away from each other in various 
oblique directions, thus making a very picturesque and pleas- 
ing group. Something of the same kind might often be 
attempted with advantage in gardens or large plantations 
with both shrubs and trees, and would get rid of the monot- 
ony of a succession of upright and shapely specimens stand- 
ing free from every species of encumbrance. For ordinary 
plants, a distance of from three to six feet, according to the 
size of the plants, will be most proper. Very small shrubs 
may even be placed as near as two feet, but three or four 
feet will more generally be right. 

9. Securing Stock. — In the establishment of large estates, 
particularly when the grounds are to be under the constant 
care of an experienced arboriculturist, it is usually wise to 
have a nursery on the place. While it will not supply all 
the materials needed, and while it will not usually prove to 
be any great economy, it will nevertheless be a great con- 
venience. Trees and shrubs may be had of the varieties 
desired, and, what is more important, they will be on hand 
when wanted and will not have to undergo the risk and 
exposure of long shipments. For most private places, how- 
ever, it will be best to secure plants through the regular com- 
mercial nurseries. Where trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants 
are to be used in considerable quantities they can always be 
had at reasonable prices. 

The main point to be considered in securing nursery stock 
from dealers is to get young, thrifty, clean, well-grown stock 
free from disease. Old trees which have been kept for years 
in the nursery rows are almost certain to be the culls left 



Practical Directions 279 

after many selections. The only important exception to this 
general rule is to be made for those fine large trees especially 
grown by certain nurserymen who supply them, at corre- 
spondingly high pricies, for planters desiring immediate 
effects. Freedom from insects and disease should be insured 
by the state inspector's certificate; but unfortunately it is not 
always a final test. Personal inspection by the buyer should 
be added to official inspection in all cases. 

It is not important, as has often been claimed, that nursery 
trees should be grown in the immediate locality where they 
are to be used. There are certain practical advantages in 
patronizing a nearby nursery, the most important being the 
decreased risk of delay and damage in shipment. Aside 
from these questions of convenience the buyer may fairly 
choose that nursery which offers the best plants at the lowest 
prices, — always having first care for the quality of the 
stock and second for price. 

When considerable quantities of nursery stock are required 
to plant a place it will be found an excellent plan to send 
duplicate lists of the requirements to several nurseries, asking 
for itemized bids. Such bids will enable the buyer to place 
his order to best advantage; and often he will find it expedient 
to order a part of the bill from one nursery and a part from 
another. When considerable amounts of stock of a single 
size and variety are wanted nurserymen will often be glad 
to send samples with the bids, in order that the buyer may 
know exactly what he is to get. 

Large plants taken from nursery rows never become prop- 
erly furnished, but always retain their spindly, bare, and 
pinched-up appearance. Where larger things are wanted, 
only such as have been grown separately in borders or as 
specimens should be used. None but the smaller plants, if 
obtained from rows in a nursery, will be at all satisfactory. 



280 Landscape Gardening 

And it is small plants which, if well attended to, constantly 
produce the most healthy and perfect specimens. While, 
therefore, a few larger things may be admitted into a garden 
for variety, the staple of its furniture should be made up of 
lower stuff. Three to four feet in height is a good size for 
forest and ornamental trees and about two feet for the 
majority of shrubs. Evergreens answer better when planted 
only about nine inches or a foot high, if they be afterwards 
kept free from weeds and are not allowed to be smothered 
by other plants. 

In selecting plants for furnishing a garden, character and 
ornament should invariably be the prime considerations. 
Mere novelty ought to have little or no weight. Besides the 
objects to be aimed at in planting which have been mentioned 
in previous pages, however, it may be well to take into 
account the appearance of deciduous trees and shrubs in 
winter, with respect to their general form, or the color of 
their shoots and buds, and also with reference to their beauty 
when covered with snow and frost. Such as have slender or 
drooping branches are particularly eligible on the latter 
account and none are more so than the weeping birch. For 
the color of their shoots and buds, birches, willows, alders, 
the golden ash, dogwood, etc., are most noticeable. 

To relieve the excessive bareness of young plantations in 
pleasure grounds, dahlias, hollyhocks, and many other her- 
baceous species, if copiously introduced, have been found 
singularly useful. The leaves of newly planted shrubs sel- 
dom develop fully for the first year or two, and much may 
therefore be done to make the clumps look fuller by means 
of the plants just named without doing any injury to the 
more permanent occupants of the ground. 

10. Staking Trees. — Newly planted trees and large shrubs 
will sometimes require staking or supporting, as, if they play 



Practical Directions 



281 



about in the ground by the action of winds, the roots will be 
broken and strained, and a hole for the collection of water 
be formed, which will in the course of time rot the roots. 
Evergreens are particularly liable to suffer and even die from 
this cause. They present a greater surface to the action of 
the winter gales. And all plants that are disproportionately 
heavy in the head are most likely to need staking. 

But any kind of staking is sure to be more or less unsightly, 
and whatever means can be devised for dispensing with it will 
be a decided boon. Something may certainly be done by 




I 



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Figs. 76 and 77. Setting a Tree to Stay. 



planting things of a rather lower growth around one that 
is apt to be moved about by winds. These will soften the 
force of the attacks and make the plant more proof against 
them. For large trees, too, that are planted with balls of 
earth, and have tolerably strong roots, a triangular or square 
frame made of bars of wood laid across the ball of the plant, 
and nailed to stout posts driven firmly into the ground at 
the corners, will be safer than any upright stakes. (See figs. 
76 and 77, the latter being the ground plan.) Strong ropes 
fastened to the upper part of the stem of a newly planted 
tree, and tied in several directions to other trees or fixed 
objects (fig. 78), putting some hay or matting around the 



282 



Landscape Gardening 



tree to prevent it from being cut by the ropes, may occa- 
sionally be successful. Planting with good balls of soil or a 
little more deeply than usual will help further to stay large 
specimens and to make them able to dispense with extra 
support. 

Where neither of these plans is applicable, or would not be 
effectual, stakes themselves must be employed. If the wind 
blows most roughly from any particular quarter, the principal 





Fig. 78. Staking a Tree. 



Fig. 79. Staking a Large Tree. 



stake should be placed on that side that the plant may blow 
away from the stake and not upon it. Some hay, matting, 
or other soft substance should be put between the plant and 
the stake, and also around the plant where the cord embraces 
it. More than one or even two stakes (fig. 79) will some- 
times be requisite for very strong or very heavy plants. But 
if the stakes are driven down very deeply, they need not 
stand more than one, two, or three feet above the ground, 
which will render them less objectionable. If only one stake 
be employed, it may by chance be able to do its work if 



o 



o 




Practical Directions 283 

placed behind the plant, so as not to be seen from the walk, 
and this is everywhere desirable, when it does not diminish 
the power of support. No stake should ever be dispropor- 
tionately thick or it will appear clumsy. When one end is 
thicker than the other, the thick end must be inserted in the 
ground. And it ought to be remembered, too, that the 
higher any stake stands out of the ground, the greater will 
be the power of leverage upon it, and the deeper it should 
descend into the earth. 

In applying stakes to plants, the time when their roots are 
bare and before they are covered in with soil should be 
chosen for placing the stake in its right position, that it may 
not injure any of the roots. If driven down at random after 
the roots are all buried, it will most probably damage or 
sever some of the more valuable of them. The nearer it 
can be placed to the stem of the plant, consistently with 
safety, the more power it will possess, and the less distinctly 
will it be visible. The tree should in all cases be fastened 
as firmly as possible to the stake, always providing that it 
has room to expand itself for two or three years. 

11. Sodding Lawns. — Where good turf can be had with- 
out much trouble or expense, it will be more immediately 
beautiful and satisfying to sod a lawn than to sow it down 
with fresh seeds. And even if it be too serious an item under 
any circumstances, the edgings of walks and the outlines of 
beds should be everywhere defined by a strip of old turf at 
least a foot in width. This will prevent the seeds from being 
scattered on the walks or borders, and make the edging 
firmer and less ragged for several years. Indeed, it is impos- 
sible to make a sound and satisfactory edging, except with 
old turf. 

Sods should always be chosen from an old pasture, and one 
where sheep have been accustomed to graze will be best. 



284 Landscape Gardening 

The autumn months offer decidedly the fittest season for 
laying them down, as they will then at once take ho d of the 
ground, without the danger of their separating and curling 
up at the edges during the succeeding summer. But any 
mild weather throughout the winter or a showery time up 
to a late period in the spring may be selected for the opera- 
tion, if more convenient. The soil should always be well 
stirred as the sods are laid, and if there is any chance of their 
suffering from drought or if the grass is not sufficiently fine, 
a little light soil mixed with lime may be strewn over them 
after they are laid, and swept into their interstices with a 
scrubby broom. A few of the finer grass seeds may be added, 
if it be in spring. Sods ought always to be laid lengthwise 
up and down steep slopes or at right angles with a line . of 
walk as the edgings will then remain firmer, and may be cut 
truer. 

12. Seeding Lawns. — For sowing grass seeds the ground 
should be lightly dug over about the first week in April 
or the first of September, and the seeds sown immediately 
after. It will be advisable to scatter them rather thickly, 
then tread and rake them well in and give the ground a 
thorough rolling. Care must be exercised to make up the 
ground by the edgings already laid to the level of the top 
of those edgings, in order that, when the young grass springs 
up, all may be on the same level and there may not be a 
break or dip between the old and the new. After the grass 
has vegetated, it will simply require to be kept free from 
weeds until it is strong enough to be mown. A dry day in 
a showery season will of course be best for sowing grass, as 
it is for all other seeds. And it ought not to be forgotten 
that, on the evenness with which the ground is dug, leveled, 
and raked, will hereafter depend the beauty and smoothness 
of the lawn. 



Practical Directions 285 

In sowing small lawns it will be best to buy a so-called 
lawn mixture from some thoroughly reliable nurseryman. 
In other cases it is well to stick pretty close to blue grass or 
June grass, Rhode Island bent grass, meadow fescue, and 
white clover. 

13. Special Situations. — Certain situations are so unfa- 
vorable to some kinds of vegetation that they are only capable 
of bringing a few plants to perfection. And as it is generally 
better to grow a few things well than to have a more ample 
collection of indifferently cultivated plants, the knowledge 
of what will flourish in a given district will be of great use to 
guide the planter in his selection. While I cannot pretend, 
then, to furnish extended lists, which would demand a fami- 
liar local acquaintance with the entire country, it may per- 
haps be suggestive at least of what can be done, if I advert 
to a few common kinds of climatic peculiarities and mention 
some of the most ornamental plants that are calculated to 
suit them. 

Gardens in the neighborhood of the sea are much afflicted 
with gales which are of such violence and carry such a quan- 
tity of saline matter with them that the leaves and young 
shoots of some plants are frequently destroyed. Dense plant- 
ing on ground that has been perfectly drained and prepared 
will be some slight preservative against such winds; and it 
will be useful to gather the plants together in masses to a 
greater extent than would otherwise be required, that they 
may help to sustain and shelter one another. Single plants, 
or thin strips of them, are always most scourged and cut to 
pieces by such gales. Still there are some plants which will 
endure a prodigious amount of blowing without material 
damage. And of these the sycamore maple and other 
maples, some elms (especially the Wych elm), birches, if 
planted young; beech, when likewise planted in a small state; 



286 Landscape Gardening 

the common alder, the mountain ash, and several services; 
and the Scotch fir, Austrian pine, Pinus laricio, montana, and 
pinaster, if a little sheltered, will make excellent trees for the 
seaside. Poplars and willows will be valuable for temporary 
shelter, as they will grow rapidly and tall, and thus protect 
the others till they become strong, after which they should 
by degrees be almost entirely weeded out. 

Among dwarf seaside plants, the dogwoods, the Ribes san- 
guineum and aureum and grossularicpfolium, the deciduous 
viburnums, the symphorias, the elders, the tamarisk, some 
of the spiraeas, particularly salicifolia, the common fly honey- 
suckle, and the berberries are particularly hardy for decidu- 
ous shrubs; while all the hollies are valuable as evergreens, 
and the common rhododendrons and heaths (when planted 
young), evergreen berberries, will, with privet, which is 
almost evergreen, be useful in rendering a seashore garden 
green and lively during winter. Of these, the tamarisk, the 
elder, and the common furze will flourish on the very margin 
of the sea and in the poorest sandbanks. 

For hills that are more inland where there is a scanty soil 
and great exposure with steep or precipitous faces exhibiting 
little beyond the bare rock in parts, birches, pines, larches, 
the common ash, the common oaks, mountain ash and ser- 
vices, with heaths, rhododendrons if there be a little shade, 
common hollies, thorns, and clematis for enriching some of 
the jutting masses of rock, vacciniums, mountain snowberry, 
savin, etc., will make an excellent clothing of either a dense 
or a partial kind. Plants should be put in when quite small 
in such elevated tracts. 

Of plants that will thrive in marshy places or by the sides 
of water courses, willows and alders will be the most signifi- 
cant, and the latter are decidedly ornamental. The decidu- 
ous cypress, in sheltered spots, is quite as suitable, and even 



Practical Directions 287 

more elegant. Where there is a small raised bank, however, 
by the margin of a stream, oaks, beeches, sycamores, weeping 
birches, and thorns will form good accompaniments, though 
almost any other tree will grow in such a position. 

Within the smoky precincts of large towns, the accumula- 
tion of soot on the leaves of plants keeps them sickly and, 
in conjunction with other influences, actually destroys many 
of them. Without doubting the potency of town gases or 
more substantial deposits, I am inclined to attribute some of 
the bad health common in town plants to the miserable earth 
in which they are often grown, and believe that were the soil 
renewed and freshened occasionally by additional deposits, 
the ground being duly drained and prepared in the first 
instance, many of our public gardens in towns would present 
a different aspect. 

Some plants, however, unquestionably manage to endure 
the air of large towns better than others. Elms, planes, 
beeches, birches, poplars, horse chestnuts, mountain ash, 
lilacs, privet, Japanese quince are a few of these. Planes 
may be particularly mentioned as enduring the very worst 
of town atmospheres in the heart of London, and growing as 
healthily there as if they were in the open country. To 
enumerate more would demand an amount of space which 
the design of the book will not justify me in affording. Any 
one accustomed to walk through extensive towns might soon, 
by a little observation, extend and perfect this list, and with 
an eye also to their own locality. The principal aim in this 
and all other matters has chiefly been to put amateurs on the 
right track, and not to exhaust the subject which is too ample 
to be fully discussed in so short an essay. 

14. Program of Work. — It may be well just to indicate, 
cursorily, the order in which the different operations involved 
in laying out a garden should be performed, as some incon- 



288 Landscape Gardening 

venience and extra work might be occasioned by having any 
of them done much out of the proper routine. 

The first thing to be set about — whether the place be 
large or small — is to make a definite plan of proposed oper- 
ations on a sufficiently enlarged scale. This should never be 
omitted since the proportions of the various parts can be 
judged of better on a plane surface, such as that of paper, 
and greater consistency and harmony can be attained. It 
will be advisable, also, to set out the walks, plantations, beds, 
etc., from this plan, by actual measurement, and not simply 
by the eye, to secure precisely the same easiness of lines and 
adjustment of parts as in the plan, only modifying any of 
these afterwards in such ways as an examination of the whole 
from the many different points of view may render necessary. 

When the plan is made and the position for the house 
fixed upon, the soil on the spot which the house will cover, 
and for at least six or eight yards in width all around it, 
should be stripped off, and partly taken away for the planta- 
tions or kitchen garden, partly thrown up in a ridge around 
the stripped area to be used after the house is completed in 
covering such portion of the ground as may ultimately be 
converted into garden. Space for the builders to work and 
trample upon will thus be left, and there will also be room 
for depositing the clay or rubbish from the foundations. 
Beyond what will finally be wanted round the house itself, 
the material from the foundations should, however, be at 
once taken where it will be required, which will save the 
trouble of moving it twice. 

To prevent the workmen employed in building the house 
and those engaged in carting materials to it from making foot- 
paths or roads over all parts of the ground, it will be prudent 
as soon as the foundations for the house are excavated to 
cut out the principal approach, drive, or walk, and fill it with 



Practical Directions 289 

rough stone or gravel fit for carting and walking upon, so 
as to confine every one as much as possible to the use of this. 

Fences of all kinds will next engage attention. It will 
naturally be concluded that one of the first things to do is to 
make the boundary fences perfect, due regard being had to 
the chosen points of entrance. The inner fences, such as that 
round the pleasure grounds, may afterwards be fixed. And 
where kitchen garden or other walls have to be erected, they 
should be begun in good time, that the builder's workmen 
may be got out of the way before it be necessary to com- 
mence on the ground work. In short, no trenching or level- 
ing should be attempted in any part until the masons, brick- 
layers, or other artisans have fairly completed their duties. 

Draining, grading, and general ground work, such as form- 
ing pieces of water, raising mounds, preparing rockeries, or 
any similar rough operations to throw the surface of the place 
into its leading shapes and outlines may then be proceeded 
with, always leaving space enough around the house un- 
touched that the builders may not interfere with what is 
done. 

While the ground is still unpolished but the general shape 
of everything correctly marked out, the planting should be 
done. It always disturbs the grass to plant after it has been 
laid down. And as the house will no doubt be almost 
finished by this time, the edgings of the walks can then be 
formed, which may be done by inverting sods, cut about 
nine inches thick, and a foot in length and breadth, along the 
margins, laying them so as to allow about from one to three 
inches to pare off at the top, and a similar piece on the sides 
next the walk. These sods will be found to make excellent 
edgings, in point of firmness; and after they are laid, the 
ground can be leveled to them and to the beds and planta- 
tions, ready for putting on the turf, or for sowing with grass 



290 Landscape Gardening 

seeds, either or both of which processes may follow, if it hap- 
pens to be the right season. Of course, however, it is assumed 
that the planting, and all the other things here spoken of, 
will be done only at the periods of the year already recom- 
mended as most suitable. 

As soon as the grass is duly laid and settled, and the work- 
men have left the house, the edgings of the walks can then 
be accurately cut, observing to pare them down quite square, 
and take out the soil to the very bottom of the foundation of 
the walk; otherwise grass and weeds will be continually rising 
afterwards and destroying the regularity and evenness of the 
lines. The edgings towards the borders or beds can be cut at 
the same time, or earlier if desired. The gravel may then be 
spread on the walks, and the whole will be completed. 

But it is quite possible that workmen may be detained at 
the house, plastering or painting the exterior, for some time 
after the principal parts of the garden have been finished. 
In that case, it will be proper to defer leveling and sodding 
as much of the space adjoining the house as they are likely 
to trample over, and make all this good after they have been 
entirely removed, or much of the sod will most likely be trod- 
den out of place or destroyed. Especially is it requisite to 
refrain from planting near a house until all its outer portions 
have received the last touches, for it is almost certain that 
many of the plants would otherwise be injured and broken. 



INDEX 



Access to the house, 132 
Accessibility, 2 
Altitude, 8 

Animals in parks, 199 
Apparent extent, 54, 58 
Approaches, 23 
Appropriation, 96 
Aquatic plants, 225 
Arbors, 234 

Architectural gardens, 171 
Artificial mounds, 32 
Artificial ponds, 227 
Aspect, 17 
Association, 102 
Aviaries, 245 

Banks of lakes, 229 
Biographical note, xiii 
Blending, 52 
Boathouses, 232 
Border plantings, 151 
Boundaries, 11 
Boundary treatment, 81 
Boundary walls, 146 
Bowling green, 221 
Branching walks, no, 113, 141 
Breadth of lawn, 55 
Bridges, 231 
Building walks, 261 

Carriage turn, 138 
Character, 89 
Choice of a place, 1 
Clearings, 260 
Climate, 12 
Climbing plants, 186 
Clumps of trees, 35 
Combination of elements, 103 
Compactness, 49 
Concealment of outbuildings, 6 



Contrast, 84 
Convenience, 48 
Cost of maintenance, 128 
Croquet grounds, 222 
Curved walks, 266 

Drainage, 257 
Drives, 43 

\ 
Eccentricities, 40 
Economy, 127 
Edgings for walks, 191 
Entrance features, 133, 247 
Evergreens, 161 

Fences, 38, 59, 143, M7 
Fields, 194 
Fitness, 96 

Flower beds, 30, 116, 118, 150 
Flower beds in winter, 187 
Flower garden, 202 
Flowers and grass, 157 
Foreground treatment, 63 
Formality, 41 

Garden architecture, 161 
Gate lodge, 246 
General principles, 46 
Geometrical figures, 41 
Grading, 16, 83, 121, 268 
Grading land, 196 
Grading to the walk, 142 
Grading walks, 57 
Graduation, or transition, 53 
Greenhouses, 239 
Grouping, 71, 82, 183 
Groups, 153 

Hedges, 188 
Herbaceous plants, 156 
Historical considerations, 7 
House plans, 18 



2QI 



292 



Index 



Imitation of nature, 97 


Shadows, 184 


Improvement of shelter belts, 36 


Shady spots, 188 


Intricacy, 47 


Shapes of trees, 180 




Shelter, 13, 129 


Kitchen garden, 44, 242 


Shelter plantings, 190 




Shrubbery walks, 197 


Mixed styles, 39 


Simplicity, 47 


Monotony, 42 


Single trees, 196 


Mounds and banks, 176 


Sky lines, 152 




Small matters, 175 


Natural features, 95 


Sodding lawns, 283 


Natural style, 123 


Soil, 9 


Neighborhood environment, 5 


Special collections, 216 


Nursery stock, 278 


Special features, 194 




Special situations, 285 


Originality, 88 


Specimen plants, 158 


Overdoing, 28 


Staking trees, 280 


Overexposure, 38 


Statuary, 237 


Overplanting, 34 


Styles of gardening, 93, 107 




Summer houses, 234 


Particular objects, 175 


Surprises, 40 


Perspective, 60 


Symmetry, 53 


Picturesque style, 124 





Planting, 269 
Planting out, 274 
Plantings on shores, 230 
Playgrounds, 219 
Poverty of expression, 92 
Practical considerations, 127 
Practical directions, 257 
Preface to American edition, x 
Preface to first edition, v 
Preparations for planting, 269 
Program of work, 287 
Protectors for trees, 148 

Removal of trees, 39 
Repton on trees, 180 
Richness and polish, 67 
Rockeries and fern gardens, 209 
Rose garden, 213 
Rustic work, a 

Seaside gardens, 255 
Seclusion, 50 
Securing stock, 278 
Seeding lawns, 284 



Tennis courts, 222 
Terrace plantings, 169 
Terrace treatments, 121 
The gardener, 272 
The " long walk," 136 
Thickets, 159 
Treatment of walks, 140 
Tree belts, 34 

Undergrowth, 160 
Unity of parts, 51 
Unsuitable ornaments, 40 

Variety, 68 

Various accessories, 234 

Vases, 237 

Views, 15, 76, 79 

Vistas, 62 

Walks, 70 
Water, 122 
Water treatment, 80 
What to avoid, 28 
Winter garden, 218 



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